


Trouble

by Illeana Starbright (SunlightOnTheWater)



Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Pack Dynamics, Velociraptors
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-04-03 12:26:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4100863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlightOnTheWater/pseuds/Illeana%20Starbright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year after re-opening Jurassic World, Masrani Global is facing criticism from various animal rights activists. Their solution? Allow six people in good standing with animal rights community almost unlimited access to the dinosaurs in the park for twelve days. Takes place six months after <em>Tainted</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tainted](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3381008) by [Macx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macx/pseuds/Macx). 



> This story is based off of the concepts and events in _Tainted_ by Macx which is an absolutely awesome story. Seriously, go check it out!

Jurassic World was both a biological wonder and a nightmare. In the last year, Masrani Global had created a monster of their own design and, not unlike Frankenstein's monster, it had gotten free to wreak havoc on the park. The incident had been carefully swept under the rug with copious amounts of money and the part had thrived. Then animal rights activists had turned their attention towards the dinosaurs.

Although Jurassic World had recovered from the Indominous Rex incident, very vocal animal rights activists could be trouble. Therefore a solution to satisfy them had to make created. After three weeks of debating with the board of trustees, invitations were sent out to individuals that were very involved and trusted in animal rights communities. Six came back as confirmation.

Rachel Warring and her boyfriend, Cole Trenton, posed the highest risk to Jurassic World. While Cole had a bachelor's degree in Zoology that helped him determine whether or not a habitat was suitable for the creatures inside, Rachel was simply a well spoken fanatic. She and Cole had been known to set wild animals loose from zoos and preserves, regardless of dangers posed to the people around them. They would be closely watched during their entire visit to ensure that none of the dinosaurs "accidentally" broke loose from their enclosures.

A Biologist and a Paleontologist, Matt Harper and his wife Jody, also agreed to come. Matt had been involved in careful animal rights inspections of several zoos and reserves. He was known for not acting until he had all the facts and making sure their was a plan of action to fix the problem. His wife helped him as often as she could and was well known in the field for her studies on prehistoric predators. They would bring with them their eight year old daughter, Allie, who was home schooled. She traveled wherever they did but was normally well behaved.

Grace Kimmel, a Zoologist who had done ground breaking research on African elephants and now worked to implement her findings in zoos in order to make them healthier for the animals, sent back her own confirmation. So did Marine Biologist and trainer at Sea World, Adam Walters who had done an incredible amount of work at making the training and living conditions of animals at the theme park more like their natural environment.

These six, with the addition of Allie Harper, would be given unlimited access to most the animals at the park, with the exception of the dangerous predators, for exactly twelve days. After those twelve days, they would give a statement about the conditions of the animals in the park that would hopefully silence the rumblings of near fanatical animals rights activists that were sure the dinosaurs in Jurassic World were being mistreated. It sounded like a great plan. On paper.

 

*

 

Claire Dearing was anything but pleased when she received the email from Simon Masrani. After running the park during the i-rex disaster and nearly losing both her job and her life, she had thought everything else would be simple to handle. Returning to the park had been nerve wracking but relieving as well. The audit had run smoothly. The grand re-opening after the disaster had gone without a hitch. After a year of things running as smoothly as they ever would in a theme park full of prehistoric creatures, Claire had allowed herself to relax a little. Then Masrani had dumped this on her lap.

She stared a the open folders, looking at pictures and profiles. She understood the necessity of placating the animal rights activists but she didn't like that two people notorious for releasing dangerous animals would be in her park. She doubted the Dan Carter would like it either when she handed the folders over to him. The team was set to arrive on Friday at exactly seven in the morning, an hour before the park officially opened. Masrani had requested that Claire personally meet them at the landing strip and escort them to their rooms for the next twelve days. She was also to give each of them contact information for the trainers, Carter, and herself in case they required anything during their stay. She had two days to prepare.

Claire pressed a pale hand to her forehead as she tried to create a plan of action. The trainers would have to be told about what was coming. She would need to speak to Elias Lorenzo, who was in charge of all technical aspects of the park, and Dan Carter about upping security and keeping a close eye on Rachel Warring and Cole Trenton. She would need to talk to Owen.

That thought stopped her in her tracks. Showing animal rights activists the Velociraptors was a nightmare waiting to happen. Especially with Owen standing in the midst of them. Most people at the park understood that what Owen Grady had with his raptors was special. Unfortunately for them all, the animals rights activists probably wouldn't see the same thing. They'd see predators degraded, turned into pets or work horses, instead of pack animals following their alpha. A sigh escaped her mouth and she reached for her phone. She would need to talk to Owen first. Then she would hand copies of the files over to Lorenzo and Carter.

 

Owen came back from pack time at sunset only to find the light on his answering machine blinking. The message was from Claire, a simple request for him to come talk to her when he had time today. He made sure his girls were settled and headed for her office.

Carter and Lorenzo were there when he arrived, talking to Claire in hushed but frustrated voices. Several folders were spread across the park manager's normally immaculate and Claire appeared a little frazzled as she spoke with them. Owen rapped once on the door and three heads turned to acknowledge him. Claire gave him a weak smile while both Carter and Lorenzo lifted their hands in greeting. "We'll be done in just a moment," she said, voice firm, before turning back to the other men. They spoke for a moment longer before the conversation faded out. Lorenzo left with barely a nod to Owen but Carter paused, looking the other man in the eyes. "Be ready for a bombshell," Carter warned before leaving the office.

"What was that all about?" Owen asked, approaching Claire's desk, and she let out a heavy sigh.

"Recently animal rights activists have been very vocal about not trusting the care of the dinosaurs in the park," she said. "So Masrani decided to allow a select group access to all the animal enclosures for twelve days. Staring on Friday."

Owen absorbed that quietly for a moment before asking, "This Friday?" Claire nodded and there was another moment of silence before he added, " _All_ the enclosures?"

"All of them," she confirmed grimly. "Even the raptors."

The tumultuous wave of emotions that swept over him at those words caught the attention of the pack. His girls closed ranks around him, not sure what had him so worried but willing to defend him from whatever came their way. The fight with the i-rex had made Isla Nublar their territory, their home, and they would fight for it. He breathed out slowly, allowing their protectiveness to calm him.

_Ours,_ they told him with calm certainty. He agreed with them silently, turning back to Claire.

"I'm sorry about this," she told him. "But the orders come from Masrani himself. I've been trying to get in contact with him half the day but his secretary insists he's in the middle of an important meeting and can't come to the phone."

"It's okay, Claire," he reassured her. "I'll talk to him." She nodded, appearance still worn with worry. It was obvious that she didn't approve of this step, or the short notice she had been given. Still, there was nothing either of them could do about it. "Do you have plans for dinner?" he asked, not liking the strain he saw on her features. He and Claire might not work as lovers but she was one of his closest friends and their history only pulled them closer together. She shook her head once, eyes staring almost blearily past his shoulder at the wall. "Eat with me?" he offered. "We can stop in at Sunrio's and you can relax for an hour before you have to go back to making this work."

"I don't know," she hedged, lips pinched into a grim line as she shook her head to clear it. "There's so much work that needs to be done and I'm already behind."

"Eat first," he pressed. "You'll work better on a full stomach."

For a moment he thought she was still going to refuse. Then Claire nodded once and rose. "Let's go," she said, face still pinched with tension, and offered him her arm. He took it and guided her out of the neat office that had been turned to chaos by the events of the day, determined to wash some of the stress away from her before he returned to his girls.

 

That night, his dreams were full of the i-rex disaster. The raptors kept him distanced from it all, but he watched as the creature worked to decimate the creatures in the park and the people that created her. He slept through the night, but he did not sleep peacefully.

 

The pink sunrise roused him from his dark dreams. He stretched, showered, ate, and checked his messages quickly, before stepping outside. His girls were waiting for him, sending out eager calls from the paddock. Their eagerness to run slipped into his mind, become his own. It lightened his steps as he walked to the fence, unlocking and unlatching the door. He stepped into the paddock and his girls swarmed him joyfully. Blue nuzzled his shoulder, growling lowly at the lower ranked pack members when they jostled too much, almost shoving her away from her chosen spot.

Owen rubbed a hand over scaly heads as they chattered happily to him. "Ready to run?" he asked.

_Run_ , Blue confirmed in his mind. Her pack sisters agreed with her. Charlie was wriggling with excitement, bumping into Delta and Echo. Echo started bouncing as well but Delta rumbled at them in irritation.

"Muzzles first," he told them and got unhappy, warbling noises in reply. They pouted, as much as raptors could pout, while he put the muzzles on but didn't others protest. They knew the rules and, despite all they'd done for the park during the i-rex attack, they were still required to be muzzled until they reached the restricted area.

Once they were muzzled, he started the motorcycle. Despite the muzzles their joy still reverberated over the pack bond, rushing through him. They ran alongside him, only pausing to remove the muzzles before they started to run again. Claire had sent out a message this morning, announcing a park wide meeting between herself and the trainers this afternoon. A second email, not longer after the first, had informed Owen that since they had already spoken about the matter at hand, he was not required to attend. That meant he could set aside today as a pack business day, which was good considering that he might not get another chance for twelve days.

His girls were puzzled as to what was going on. They understood the concept of someone who spoke for those who could not. It was what Owen did as alpha, expressing the pack's needs to others. What they didn't understand was why anyone would think they were unhappy. Through their alpha, they could distantly feel the other dinosaurs at times, something they were still not overly pleased about, and knew that they were happy. The large amount of preternatural trainers that were attune to their dinosaurs made sure that the creatures in Jurassic World were happy and healthy. That any human would think otherwise was nothing but foolishness to them.

It seemed like foolishness to Owen as well.

He knew that animal rights activists had helped animals in the past, but the creatures in Jurassic World weren't a pony or even a tiger. Most of the people in animal rights groups didn't necessarily know what to do with a tiger or how to help it. He doubted they would even know where to begin when it came to judging whether or not one of the creatures in Jurassic World was happy.

 

They stopped when the sun was high in the sky, Owen settling against a tree while his girls roamed.

_Come with me?_

Blue's question had him closing his eyes and sinking into her mind, allowing the feelings of the pack push away the little bit of tension that refused to leave. Months since the disaster with the i-rex that had pushed the pack closer together had seen him steadily improve on being what, he told the other trainers, was essentially a backseat driver. Blue was still the easiest to ride with, but he was constantly improving with the others.

Relaxing in his beta's mind, he experienced the world through her eyes as she ran, studying her surroundings. The pack spread out around them, not hunting but simply enjoying the time to play in the jungle. Animals fled, fell silent, or let out warning cries around them, but all was peaceful. Nothing larger threatened them and nothing was hunting them. Owen settled in for the ride as Blue turned towards the sea, allowing himself to truly relax for the first time since Claire had given him the news.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

The flight to Jurassic World was long, but not silent. Allie focused on carefully coloring a tiger within the lines, listening almost absently to the sound of mean Rachel ranting about how she was sure the dinosaurs were kept in tiny cages and most likely starved so they could be tempted out with food during show times. The Harpers had been around Rachel before, which had involved numerous protestations about letting a little girl come along, so Allie knew that being around the animal rights activist meant lots of talking. In fact, the little girl was certain that Rachel didn't understand the meaning of _shut up._ She also didn't like little kids.

Her boyfriend was better. He'd actually been interested in her coloring, and the drawings she'd been doing at the airport. He'd even looked up pictures of the animals she'd been trying to draw so she had some sort of reference. He was listening to Rachel rant on and on, staring just past her shoulder towards a window. He smiled at her when she caught his eye, so she waved a little.

Mom and Dad were in the seats across the aisle from Allie, reading over some information about the park. She wasn't sure what kind of stuff they were reading about but it was probably really neat. They were going to a park with _real, live dinosaurs._ How could anything like that be boring?

Behind Mom and Dad was Grace. Grace was really tall with her hair twisted into strands she called dreadlocks. "Easier to keep clean, sweetheart," she'd told Allie when the girl had asked her about them. All those dreadlocks were pushed back by a red cloth headband that was bright against her dark hair and skin. She had bright brown eyes that twinkled with just a little bit of mischief and she'd been really nice since they'd met. Allie liked her.

Grace was talking to Adam, who was sitting behind Allie. He was a friend of Mom and Dad's. Sometimes, when her parents were busy, he played games with her. He had a good imagination, for an adult, so playing with him was normally fun. He was talking quietly to Grace about her research. Allie only understood enough to know they were talking about elephants. She didn't know more than that, although she was pretty sure Grace would try to explain if she asked. She might ask later, when she was done with her picture.

 

*

 

Friday arrived far faster than anyone appreciated. Claire stood on the rapidly warming tarmac waiting for the plane to touch down. Like everything else in Jurassic World, the plane arrived exactly on time most days but every once in a while it ran late. Today was one of those days. It was five minutes past seven as the plane dipped into view below the clouds. It landed smoothly and at ten past seven the team disembarked. Claire stepped forward and said, "Welcome to Jurassic World."

 

Claire took them to their rooms and then reported immediately to Dan Carter's office. The main security office was shared by Carter and Lorenzo who, for the most part, kept it relatively organized. Carter wasn't in the office, but Lorenzo was hunched over his computer. There had been issues with a couple of cameras over the Cretaceous Cruise had been behaving strangely. Lorenzo was trying to fix the bug before it spread to other cameras and caused a park wide shut down. They couldn't keep the park running if security wasn't working properly. Dan Carter's security team worked wonders ever single day but they couldn't single handedly watch ever single person wandering through the park. They needed to security cameras to make sure no one had managed to get where they weren't supposed to be.

"Ms. Dearing," Lorenzo greeted when he looked up from his work.

"Mr. Lorenzo," she replied with a small smile. "How is it going?"

"Every time I think I have it, it evolves," he told her, looking frustrated. "At first I thought it was a a hacker attack but it's just some sort of virus. Follows the same variables though, so eventually it'll repeat and I'll have it." Claire smiled at the determination in his tone but Lorenzo wasn't looking up for a response. Instead he was bent over his keyboard again, typing rapidly.

"Do you happen to know where Carter is?" she asked. When they'd first met, Dan Carter had insisted she call him by last name only, no Mr. attached. She'd given in after about a month.

"He got called out," came the reply, typing slowing for a moment as Lorenzo spoke. "Couple security guys ran into trouble and he went to check it out. Should be back soon." Claire nodded at the explanation and settled down in the only extra chair in the room to wait. If someone urgently called her office, they could just wait.

 

*

 

Owen woke on Friday with the knowledge that there were animal rights activists in the park. And that they would be coming to visit him at some point. That did not result in a warm and fuzzy feeling. Blue stirred inside his mind, roused from her own slumber by his worry. _Safe. Pack,_ she told him, mind slowly becoming more alert. He allowed her to envelope his mind, to calm him. He sat inside the silence and safety of the bond as his other girls roused and surrounded him. _We will protect what is ours_ , Blue insisted, firm. The others echoed the sentiment, surrounding him. Owen took one more moment to bask in the bond before opening his eyes.

There was an email from Claire waiting in his inbox. The message was brief, informing park employees that their guests had arrived and that they were to cooperate with the visitors. Should they have any problems or questions, they were to direct them to Claire, Lorenzo, or Carter. Owen closed the window and headed outside. He needed the fresh air to clear his mind and his girls needed the attention.

 

They flocked to him the instant he stepped inside the paddock, making soft noises at him and nuzzling against him. He stroked necks and heads, feeling the ripple of strong muscle moving under scales. They spread out after a moment, Echo's attention quickly being caught by an unfortunate lizard that had slipped out of its hiding spot to warm on a sun drenched rock. The lizard managed to dart away just ahead of Echo's pounce and the raptor gave chase. She wasn't really interested in eating it. She simply wanted something to chase.

The, likely traumatized for life, lizard eventually made his escape by scrambling over the fence, and Echo made her way over to be muzzled. He fitted it carefully, patting her nose, and headed for his bike. They weren't going to be out all day, they couldn't just in case the animal rights team decided to show up without warning. He didn't think that would happen but he wasn't certain. It was just a little part of a huge chunk of uncertainty that the arrival of the animal rights team had caused.

Blue nudged him, just hard enough to make him sway on his feet but not enough to knock him over. He rested a hand on her scaly shoulder and breathed out in a soft sigh. She whuffled at him and he smiled, heading for the shed where he stored his bike. "Let's go girls," he told them, knowing they were shadowing his every step.

 _Run_ , the bond whispered, his girls' excitement flowing through him and washing away his anxiety for the time being. _Run, run, run._

 

Alan Grant was due to leave Isla Nublar for a series of lectures at eight the next morning so he and Owen met for steaks at seven that night. Normally when he was on the island, Grant visited Owen's trailer and continued the process of slowly acclimating to the raptors but his recent series of talks at the park had kept him busy for most the week. Echo, who was inexplicably fond of him, was rather miffed by his absence. The fact that he hadn't been visiting the other dinosaurs at the park had mollified her for the time being but when Grant returned she would expect to see him.

"How are your girls?" he asked when they'd settled across from one another at a table. Their food would be around soon.

"Thriving," he said with a smile. "Echo is upset that you haven't been visiting."

"Like being around little children," Grant replied with a shake of his head. After his previous experiences with the creatures, Alan was still tense around them, but the amused fondness in his tone was not faked. Owen's raptors were slowly growing on Grant, though the older man would deny it if anyone asked him.

Owen just laughed a little at the comment, knowing it was the truth. His girls might have been full grown, but sometimes they acted more like children than adults. "Did you hear about our special visitors?" he questioned as their server carefully placed their plates before them.

"You mean the animal rights activists?" he questioned. "Yes, I heard. I'm not sure they have any idea of what they're getting into though. I was a seasoned paleontologist when I came to the original Jurassic Park and I still wasn't prepared for what I was confronted with."

Owen nodded and took a bite of his steak, worry twisting in his stomach. This wasn't the i-rex. This wasn't something he could fight against and it bothered him more than he cared to admit. "They're going to want to see the raptors," he said at last.

"I'm certain they'll be on their best behavior for the visitors," came the calm reply. Owen's lips twitched a little at that and Alan's smile was wry. They both knew that, even if Blue and the others were behaving perfectly, people were still terrified of them. Alan's fear was one backed by experience, but others simply feared what they knew instinctively was a threat to them. Humans might claim to be at the top of the food chain, but some part of them always acknowledged that predators like the raptors were easily capable of taking them down.

They ate in silence for several more minutes, people talking around them. This particular restaurant was always full but Alan had planned ahead and gotten them reservations. "Something's going to go wrong," he said at last, pushing the last bit of his meal around on his plate. "Something always does."

Alan's lips quirked up into what he knew was a barely suppressed grin. "Now you're beginning to sound like Ian." Owen smiled a little at the mention of Ian Malcolm. The Chaos Theory expert, from what he'd heard, was very good at looking at something a listing everything that could go wrong with it. More than once he'd stepped into Alan's home to hear him debating about the safety of Jurassic World with Malcolm. "Everything will be fine," Grant added. "Masrani has put too much money into the raptor project to let a group of animal rights workers pull it apart, and your contract is sound." Owen nodded and breathed out, telling himself to relax. There were only eleven days left and then this whole thing would simply blow over, like smoke in the wind.


	3. Chapter 3

Their first two days at Jurassic World were spent sightseeing, as if they were tourists. As Rachel had so snidely put it, it was important to see the animals as they were presented to the public before stepping behind the scenes to "see what horrors Jurassic World is hiding." Jody Harper was fairly certain that Jurassic World wasn't hiding any horrors. Most theme parks that were hiding terrible cases of abuse didn't invite anyone in the animal rights community to investigate their park. And if they were bold enough to do such a thing, they wouldn't invite someone like Rachel Warring.

Most groups would have only spent one day walking through a park or zoo as visitors but most animal rights groups didn't have Allie. Jody smiled as she watched Grace Kimmel pick up her daughter so she could look down into the Edmontosaurus enclosure. The eight year old was chattering away to Grace who was smiling, nodding, and occasionally replying. Adam was next to them, grinning and shaking his head at whatever Allie was saying. Matt placed a gentle arm around her waist and Jody turned to smile at him. "They're good with her," he husband said, voice warm.

"They are," Jody agreed.

Rachel was not. The first time the Harpers had met Rachel Warring, Allie had tried her hardest to befriend the woman. Her final attempt had resulted in Rachel screeching, "Get your filthy hands off my notes you little brat" and Allie bursting into tears. Their relationship had not improved from there, despite Rachel's sullen apology the following day.

They hadn't met Cole before this assignment. He and Rachel had been dating for a year but normally they didn't go on assignments together. Allie had tried to drag him around the enclosures the day before and he'd seemed fine with it but Rachel had gotten huffy about it. Eventually Cole had returned to Rachel's side with an apologetic smile and Allie had spent the rest of the afternoon clinging to a corner of Jody's sundress. Today, they had only a few more enclosures to visit. Then they were going to schedules visits for the parts of the park that were not available for ordinary visitors to see. Then they would work on talking to the trainers.

Rachel had suggested that they split up for those parts. Adam, Jody, and Matt had come to a quiet consensus that Rachel was not to go visiting any of the places along. Allie had been coloring with Grace at the time, while Cole and Rachel were watching the sunset. They all knew that Rachel was far too rash to be left alone and make judgements. If it was at all possible, then someone was to accompany her at all times.

"Mom, come see," Allie called in her high, sweet voice, shaking Jody out of her thoughts. She stepped out of her husband's arm to join her daughter, Grace, and Adam at the edge of the paddock. One of the Edmontosauruses, a smaller one, was staring directly at them. "She wants to know what we are Mom," Allie told her.

"Did she tell you that?" Jody asked but Allie shook her head, facial expression saying she thought her mother was being foolish.

"Uh-un," came the emphatic reply. "She's just reaching."

Jody's husband and daughter were gifted. According to Matt, their gift allowed the to feel animals. Allie's went one step further, to where she could often translate a creature's communication into actual words and ideas. This gift was what helped Matt determine whether or not creatures were actually happy with their surroundings. Here at Jurassic World, where all the creatures were just a little bit different from what even Jody, as a paleontologist, had expected, that gift would be very important in helping them do their job.

As if sensing her thoughts on the subject, Matt stepped over to stand next to her, studying the animals with a distance in his eyes that told Jody he was reaching out towards them. He stood very still for a moment, leaning on the railing of the observation platform, before blinking and turning to look at her. "They're happy," he murmured, expression peaceful. "They're well fed and their environment is peaceful."

"The predators nearby don't bother them?" Jody questioned. Not far away from the Edmontosaurus enclosure was the one which contained the Baryonyx pack. Sometimes herbivores living too close to a predator could become extremely skittish or unhappy in the long term.

"I don't think so. The contentment is deep but for anything further you would have to ask Allie." Jody's gaze turned automatically to their daughter who was still cradled in Grace's arms. Allie was staring at the young Edmontosaurus just as intently as the creature was staring at her, almost as if they were having a conversation. "Her gift is much stronger than mine," Matt admitted, like he had many times before. His voice was soft but proud of his daughter's gift and what she might one day accomplish with it.

As if sensing she was being talked about, Allie turned to look at the grownups with a wide smile. "Can we go see the t-rex now," she pleaded, bouncing a little when Grace carefully placed her on the ground.

"Of course sweetheart," Jody replied with a smile, offering Allie her hand and feeling a rush of warmth in her chest when Allie latched on to her. Together the two of them led the group of animal rights activist surveyors towards the t-rex paddock. Jody could worry about the finer details of the park in a moment. For now she was simply content to show her daughter the wonders of the prehistoric world brought to life.

 

That evening Jody and Matt settled in front of the television, Allie curled up between them. The girl was watching _Dumbo_ for what felt like the hundredth time, her eyes fixed on the screen. Jody wasn't sure what so fascinated her daughter about the movie but since Allie was happy with the selection, she wasn't going to protest. In the next room of the home they were currently inhabiting, they could hear Grace and Adam talking quietly. Since the team had first gathered together a few days ago, they had been speaking a lot, though they had never met before. Jody thought that, at the very least, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Twenty minutes went by before Grace and Adam joined them. Allie stretched out with her head resting against Jody's shoulder, her eyes beginning to slip closed. It had been a long day of walking around the park and the little girl was tired. Jody slipped an arm around her daughter's shoulders and began petting Allie's blonde hair. Allie leaned further into the embrace, body going limp with coming sleep. _Dumbo_ played on, pink bubble elephants dancing in a technicolor display as Allie drifted off to sleep.

 

*

 

The second day went peacefully, and for that Claire was thankful. She had expected the worst from the moment the group had set foot in the park so to be proved wrong so quickly was relieving. They hadn't seen the full extent of the park yet, not having visited what was usually the restricted areas, so she couldn't fully relax but some of the tension had slipped away from her. "The others seem to be keeping Rachel in check," Carter had told her. The man had ordered his security to keep a close eye on the group.

"That's good," Claire had replied. "If they can keep Ms. Warring from releasing any of the animals then maybe we can get through this without a second massive disaster."

"I certainly hope we can," had been Carter's rather dismal sounding reply. Claire had simply shook her head and left his office. She could take the time to consider all the terrible things that might happen in the next ten days. She had far too much work to do.

 

*

 

Owen joined Reggie and Nancy for dinner, carry-out from one of Jurassic World's many restaurants. They chatted about the animals, Reggie announcing that the newest apatosaurs baby had been successfully integrated into the herd and Nancy asking about Owen's girls, before the conversation turned towards the animal rights activist group. "I haven't seen them," Nancy told them. "But so many people come by the mosa's shows that it would be hard to single them out."

"It's the same with the herds," Reggie agreed. "But Olivia said she saw them." Olivia O'Daniel was the Edmontosaurus trainer. She had been hired four months ago to replace the second trainer. The original one had been killed during the i-rex attack and the one before Olivia had left four months and eight days ago after having a nervous breakdown. Owen had yet to meet Olivia but Reggie and Nancy had both told him that she was gifted in the same way they were. Furthermore, he'd been informed that she had a closer bond with the Edmontosauruses than either Reggie or Nancy had with their charges, though her bond wasn't the same as Owen's with his girls.

"What'd she say?" Nancy asked while Owen took another bite of his pasta, trying to push the worry that this whole event brought up out of his mind. Blue was lurking in the back of his head, listening carefully for the answer. She didn't worry about the inevitable visit of the team like Owen did, her mindset insisting that if there was a threat to the pack and their territory then it would be eliminated, but she was curious.

"She claimed that the little girl was special," Reggie told them. "She said the girl behaved like she could hear what the dinosaurs were saying."

"And the others?" Nancy pushed.

"She didn't say much about them. Just wrinkled her nose a bit."

"They visit me and my girl Monday," Nancy said, before turning back to her own food. "And Josh, Laurel, and the rex in the afternoon."

"They're coming to see the herds on Tuesday," Reggie informed them and Nancy nodded in acknowledgement before turning to Owen.

"When are they going to see your girls?"

"I don't know," Owen replied with a tight little shrug. "I haven't heard anything yet."

"But you were out with the girls all day, weren't you?" Nancy pressed. "They could have left you a message."

"Yeah," he said, pushing his food around. "They could have."

 

Just like Nancy had guessed, there was a light blinking on the answering machine in his home when he stepped inside. Blue was a steady, reassuring presence in his mind as he stepped forward and pressed the button to play back the message. The automated voice informed him that he had one unheard message, giving him the time and date before playing the message.

"Hello Mr. Grady," a woman's voice said politely. "My name is Jody Harper and I'm part of the animal rights group here to survey the island and I was calling to inform you that our group will be paying you a short visit tomorrow at around ten in the morning. We thank you for your cooperation in this matter and are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you. Thank you so much for your time." The message ended with an abrupt beep and Owen let his breath out in a sigh. Tomorrow was the big day then. At least he would be getting this over with early on.

Blue reverberated agreement over the pack bond. The sooner the animal rights activists had surveyed his part of the park and found it satisfactory, the better. Nancy had tentatively rescheduled mosa day for Tuesday morning, since the team was seeing her on Monday, and Owen had promised to call her back when he knew whether or not it would work. He took one more breath to steady himself before picking up his phone and dialing Nancy's number. After he finished leaving her a message he would settle in to bed for what he suspected would be a very long and relatively sleepless night.


	4. Chapter 4

Owen found himself dragging his feet the next morning. His girls were curious and a little excited about the visitors, milling about their paddock almost casually, but he was less than thrilled. Aside from the few preternatural trainers he was friends with, most people thought he was crazy for stepping inside a paddock with the raptors. Worse yet, most people were terrified by what they witnessed. Having animal rights activists think he was clinically insane wouldn't help garner their support for Jurassic World.

He stepped outside at a quarter til ten, brilliant sunlight washing over him. He'd slept fairly decently during the night, if for no other reason than because his military training had helped teach him how to sleep in even the most adverse situations. He'd dreamed of the i-rex again, of her powerful, malevolent mind rushing over him just before the raptors lunged over the bond to surround and protect him. He tried to force himself to relax as he sat on the front step of his house, waiting for the group to arrive.

 _Pack,_ Blue told him, standing near the part of the paddock closest to his home. _Safe._

"Yeah," he agreed softly. "Pack."

The rumble of an approaching vehicle had his head snapping up to take in the sight of a black BMW splattered with dirt. It had rained some the night before so there were puddles of mud scattered about that his girls were investigating. Claire Dearing was the first one to step out of the vehicle. Apparently she had been driving, despite her heels. She slammed the door and Owen stood, taking in her usual white business suit. She smiled at him when she caught his eyes and crossed the group to stand in front of him.

"How are you this morning?" she asked as the passenger door opened and a very tall woman with dreadlocks stepped out. She slammed the door as the back doors opened almost in unison. A man stepped out of the left door with blonde hair, followed by a brown haired man. Another brown haired man, older than the first, stepped out of the right side but leaned back in, probably to fold the seat down.

"I've been better," he admitted with a rueful smile.

"Well at least this should be over soon," Claire reassured him before turning back to the BMW. A blonde haired woman had stepped out of the vehicle, smaller figure lurking behind the woman. An auburn haired woman had stepped out of the other side of the vehicle.

"There's a kid?" he asked, eyebrows arching towards his hairline, but Claire just smiled and beckoned the group over.

"Welcome to the Velociraptor research area," Claire told them. "This Owen Grady, the man in charge of the raptor program." Then she turned to Owen and added, "This is our animal rights team. Rachel Warring is a public advocate for animals rights." She motioned to the auburn haired woman who gave him a sharp nod, her eyes dark. "Cole Trenton is a Zoologist and also a public advocate for animal rights." That was the younger dark haired man. "Grace Kimmel is a Zoologist who does research on elephants and Adam Walters is a Marine Biologist from Sea World." The woman with dreadlocks and the blonde man. "And then we have the Harpers." Claire gestured to the group of three standing towards the back. "Matt Harper is part of an animal rights inspection team and his wife Jody is a Paleontologist. The little girl is their daughter, Allie."

Owen suddenly found himself confronted with wide green eyes staring up at him as if he was something amazing. The little girl had blonde hair flowing over her shoulders and those wide green eyes seemed to almost see the pack bond that he kept hidden from most people. "Hi," she said, almost shy as she smiled up at him. He found himself smiling back.

"Thank you for cooperating with this," Jody Harper said, her voice the same warm, mellow tone as it had been over the answering machine.

"I'm glad to help," Owen lied with a tight smile.

"Why don't you show us the girls?" Claire suggested, breaking the awkward silence. Owen gave a jerky nod then and led the parade towards the raptor paddock. Blue was standing near the edge, watching the newcomers with intelligent yellow eyes. He could feel her amusement at the fear many of them were projecting.

Rachel surveyed the pack, taking in Echo and Delta wrestling each other in mud puddles, Charlie stalking a lizard, and Blue sizing up the newcomers, before turning towards Owen, arms folded over her chest. "What do you feed them?" she demanded in a tone that implied she knew she wouldn't like the answer.

"I give them some meat and take them deeper to the restricted section to hunt live prey as often as possible," he returned. He could sense Blue moving, feel her growing curiosity through the bond, but Rachel's next quickfire question.

He was distracted by the series of snide, critical questions until Rachel herself demanded shrilly, "What are you doing?" Owen turned to see the little girl, Allie, standing only a few inches away from the fence staring at Blue just as much as the raptor was staring at her. "What is she _doing?"_ Rachel demanded behind him.

"She's just looking," a patient male voice said and Owen blocked out Rachel's next annoyed snap. Allie had reached out a hesitant hand and was holding it out just a few centimeters from the fence. Blue was feeling surprisingly tolerant on the other end of the bond. The other girls had abandoned their activities and were watching in a little cluster a few feet behind the beta. When the little girl noticed them, her hand dropped to her side and she turned uncertain eyes towards Owen.

"It's okay," he told her when he pushed past his astonishment to find his voice. "They're just curious." Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo had never reacted to anyone in this way before. The closest comparison he had was Alan Grant, but they treated Grant as a respected, if somewhat foolish, ally. His girls weren't treating Allie like that. Instead they were reacting to her almost the same way they reacted to Owen.

He stretched out towards Blue and she reached back automatically, saying, _She reached out._

 _Reached out?_ he questioned.

 _Like you._ Echo, Delta, and Charlie echoed her in agreement. She had stretched out, they told him, but pulled back when she'd felt the bond between them, as if not wanting to intrude.

Blue huffed out a breath and nudged her head against the reinforced fencing, making it rattle. The little girl jumped and then hesitantly smiled at the raptor. "Hi there," she said softly, lifting her hand again and, after a moment of hesitation pressing it to the fence. Blue snorted at her, staying put for a moment before stepping back and joining her sisters. She jostled them into movement and they returned to what they'd been doing before Allie had caught their attention. As for the little girl, she remained where she was, eyes fixed on the raptors.

"Are they a pack then?" Matt Harper asked, drawing Owen's attention away from the little girl.

"They are," he confirmed.

"And you lead it?" The question was far more perceptive than anything Owen had anticipated of this day and he faltered before it.

"Yes," he said at last. Rachel Warring let out a shocked sound but Grace's eyes turned bright.

"You're in charge of the pack?" she questioned. "That's amazing. I knew it was possible to co-exist with animals. Scientists have done that with different kind of creatures and people do it with dogs and cats all the time. I didn't know that you could control a pack."

"I don't control them," he protested almost automatically. "I'm the alpha of the pack. I give them guidelines to follow and keep them in line but controlling them suggests they are tame and they are far from tame." Grace nodded, considering the raptors warily.

"You said you take them out to hunt," Jody Harper spoke up from the back. "Is that safe?"

"They're muzzled from before they leave their paddock until the time when we reach the restricted area away from other humans." Delta, who was the nearest now, let out an unhappy growl at the mention of the muzzles. The sound made most of the group flinch or startle.

"You muzzle them?" Rachel asked, sounding vaguely disgusted by the idea. "Like they're dogs?"

Before Owen could respond Claire spoke up, saying, "That's park policy. The raptors are wild animals and, though Owen guides them excellently, the park cannot afford the risk that something might go wrong and they might get set on the park." Rachel opened her mouth to snap something back but Cole Trenton slipped an arm around her waist and murmured something in her ear that silenced her. "Any other questions?" Claire asked and Owen watched as Matt, Adam, and Jody conferred before shaking their heads.

"I think we're fine for the moment," Grace said, speaking for the group. "But we'll probably be back a different day."

Owen nodded in acknowledgement and Jody called, "Allie, we're leaving." The little girl turned reluctantly away from the raptor paddock but when her mother beckoned her over she didn't protest. Owen watched them go, a rather bemused look on his face. Some of that meeting had gone exactly the way he'd thought it would but some of it had been far different than he'd ever imagined.

 

*

 

Allie watched the raptor area fade from sight, her mind humming. She'd felt something strong the closer they'd gotten to the paddock this morning but she'd never expected what she'd experienced. There was a bond of some sort between the raptors, which wasn't entirely unusual. Family groups, whether they were packs or herds, tended to have some sort of bond between them to aid in communication. This one had been a mixture of what she'd felt between flocks of larger birds and what she'd experienced between packs of wolves. That was the first unusual part. The second one was a little more startling.

The raptors and their handler somehow had a bond. Mr. Grady was just as much a part of the pack bond as any of the girls, maybe more so because she was fairly certain he was the alpha. Judging by what she'd heard of her father's questions, he'd felt something but she wasn't sure he'd truly experienced the depths of it.

She'd reached out towards the raptors, curious about them, and she'd touched just the edge of the bond before she'd pulled away. The intimacy of it had been startling, like something she'd hadn't been meant to see. Allie had pulled her reach back after that. There'd be no communicating with these creatures, not unless she wanted to intrude on something that was not for her.

The thought of that bond, the aftertaste of it in her mind, left her feeling almost lonely. What was it like to be so close to another creature? One that was as clever as the raptors had to be? Was it overwhelming? Breathtaking? Terrifying? She didn't have the answers to those questions and, for the first time in a long time, she was uncertain of how to get them. It was a puzzle she wasn't sure she could unravel. An equation without a workable solution. She stared out the window, twisting and turning the event, and what she'd felt from her brief brush of the bond, over and over in her mind, until her mother asked, "Are you okay sweetheart?"

Allie leaned into the gentle brush of her mother's hand through her hair and turned to smile at her. "Fine Mom," she said. Mom smiled at her and tucked an arm around her shoulder, allowing Allie to cuddle close. She leaned into that contact and breathed out in a shuddery sigh, allowing that odd sense of loneliness to fade away. She was here with her family, not lost and alone somewhere.

"Where to next?" she heard Grace ask Ms. Dearing up in the front of the car.

"We're going to the labs and hatchery next," the park manager replied, turning down a new road, and Allie felt new excitement blossom in her chest.

"Mom," she murmured, turning her head to beam up into her mother's bright eyes. "Baby dinosaurs!"

 

*

 

Owen settled in front of his computer that night, Alan Grant studying him on the screen. He'd let the man know late last night that the group was coming to inspect his area and Grant had insisted that Owen call him the next evening. "How'd it go?" the professor questioned, settled on the bed in his hotel room.

"Good," Owen said, breathing out a sigh. "I think. It's hard to tell."

"Those kinds of things are always hard to call," Grant said with a slight nod and Owen reminded himself that the man probably experienced surprise inspections with barely any notice at some of his digs.

"One of them was extremely critical about everything," he commented. When Alan arched his eyebrows, he added, "A Rachel Warring."

 _"Ah_ ," Grant replied, voice laced with knowing.

"You've met her?"

"Personally, no, but she's rather infamous for being impossible to please. I wouldn't worry about her too much though. She doesn't have the final say in whether or not the park is satisfactory." Owen nodded and then shifted a little in his seat, debating on whether or not he should mention the girl.

Blue and the other girls had spent part of their day mulling over Allie Harper. The very fact that she'd attempted to reach out to them had his girls intrigued. The fact that she hadn't been terribly frightened of them, even when Delta had growled or Charlie had pounced on a lizard, had made her even more interesting. Owen had to admit that he was also curious. He didn't remember being that powerful of a preternatural when he was that age, but had to admit that the memories had blurred with time. He would definitely be curious to see what Allie Harper did when she grew up.

"How was your presentation?" he asked after a moment of Grant shrewdly studying him.

The man's lips twitched, as if he knew Owen was purposefully changing the subject but allowed it, launching into a report of just how the presentation and its aftermath had gone. Listening to the story, Owen relaxed, Blue humming contentedly in the back of his mind. The worst was over. Now Jurassic World only had to survive ten more days and then the intruders would be gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Allie was watching old cartoons on the television when Matt stepped inside the room. He'd seen how his daughter had reacted to the raptors and their handler but, while he'd felt the bond between handler and raptors he knew he hadn't experienced what she had. "Allie?" he questioned softly from the doorway and she glanced up at him, smile cheerful and open.

"Yeah, Daddy?" she asked.

"Can we talk?" he prodded gently. "About the raptors?" Allie nodded and clicked off the television, sitting up to look at him. He sat down at the edge of the bed and took in his daughter's open face. "What did you feel today?" he asked and watched Allie's face light up.

"It was..." She hesitated, waving her arms a little as if she was trying to paint a picture of what she'd felt. "Breathtaking," she said at last, stumbling a little over the word. "I mean..." She trailed off again and shrugged helplessly at him. "I don't know."

"How deep was it?" he questioned curiously. Matt Harper knew that in all his years of meeting preternatural people, he had never quite seen anything like the bond he'd felt between Owen Grady and his raptors.

"Like, it was like he was a part of them," she breathed out, something like awe in her eyes and voice. Matt sat there on the bed, stunned. A preternatural connecting with an animal had always been seen as dangerous. You could lose your human self if the connection went too deep, especially if the connection was with a predator. Judging by what his daughter had just told him, Owen Grady should have lost himself a long time ago. That he hadn't was amazing and it made Matt wonder what the future might hold for the preternaturally gifted if they knew this was possible.

"Dad?" he heard Allie question and shook his head to clear it before smiling at her.

"Yes, Ladybug?" Allie giggled at the nickname, the full force of her sunny smiled turned towards him.

"Anything else?"

"Not at all," he told her, running a hand through her blonde hair. "You can go back to your cartoons for a little longer." Allie grinned and let out a little, playful cheer before turning the television back on. She was quickly absorbed back into the cartoons, the same ones he'd watched as a child, and Matt ran a hand through her hair one more time before standing and joining his wife in the next room. Whatever Owen Grady had with his raptors was a mystery for a later date. For now, he had a park to help inspect.

 

Monday morning dawned to dark clouds billowing on the horizon. The local weather station, from what Matt could put together in his broken high school level Spanish, insisted that rain was coming. Allie skipped down the pathway between he and Jody, expression bright and eager. Today they were visiting first the Mosasaurus and then the t-rex in the afternoon. Adam was looking forward to the first half of their day. Unlike the experience with the raptors, this aquatic dinosaur was right up his alley. For as long as Matt had known him, which was since his junior year in college, Adam had been passionate about sea creatures. The younger man had only been a freshman at the time but he'd already been a walking encyclopedia when it came to anything aquatic. He even knew a remarkable amount about the plants that grew underwater.

He was walking just ahead of them, talking animatedly to Grace. The tall Zoologist was nodding along with whatever he was saying, a slightly amused smile on her face whenever she turned to look at him. There was definitely the beginning of at least a friendship there, and perhaps the potential for something more. Behind the Harpers were Rachel and Cole. They were talking softly, but judging by Rachel's irritated tone the conversation was not going the way she had hoped. That was actually promising. This was the first time Matt had met Cole but, after all his experience with Rachel, he knew that anyone she could steamroller was not, in the end, going to go well for anyone. She needed someone that wasn't afraid to tell her that she was wrong.

"Hello everyone," a cheerfully voice said and the group found themselves face to face with a woman wearing a park ID on a lanyard. "I'm Nancy Hisada, the trainer for our mosa."

"It's nice to meet you Miss Hisada," Grace said, stepping forward to shake her hand. Over all, Matt's impression of Grace was a good one. She was an intelligent, independent woman who, much like his darling Jody, would make up her own mind about the status of Jurassic World rather than allowing someone like Rachel to influence her final decision. "My name is Grace Kimmel. These are Adam Walters, Rachel Warring, Cole Trenton, and Jody, Matt, and Allie Harper."

"It's nice to meet you all," Nancy said, though her smile turned slightly forced when her eyes fell on Rachel's typical sneer. During his entire experience with Rachel, Matt was fairly certain he had only seen her smile twice. She was not, over all, a very pleasant person to be around. "Please, come with me and I'll introduce you to our lovely lady."

"That would be wonderful," Adam spoke up. "After working in Sea World, I'm very excited to see what kind of a set up you have here."

"Well let me show you," Nancy Hisada told him, smile becoming more genuine again as she led the way towards the back area of the enclosure.

 

The Mosasaurus was massive. Matt had seen large creatures before, but never quite one of this scope. Though he wasn't a Marine Biologist, he suspected it was larger than many whales. Her mind was large as well. He could barely brush against it, but it felt as vast as the ocean this creature would have once inhabited. It was the kind of thing that left him feeling breathless and slightly overwhelmed. Allie had her arms wrapped around him and her head buried against his side. He rested a hand in her hair and realized, with some shock, that she was trembling slightly.

"Can we go Daddy?" she asked, voice thin. He glanced through the group and found Rachel standing a little ways back, arms folded over her chest and what was almost a pout on her face, as Adam and Jody took turns asking Nancy questions. Cole was standing next to them, something that was almost awe on his face as he listened to the answers.

"Sure, Ladybug," he told her, turning to Grace who was standing nearby observing the Mosasaurus. "Grace, can you tell the others that we've gone out?"

"Of course," she replied with a smile and Matt nodded at her before guiding Allie out.

The pair of them settled on an empty bench along one of the pathways within eyesight of the Mosasaurus area, Allie leaning into his side. After a minute her trembling calmed and she sat up a little, watching the tourists walk by them. Only then did he ask, "What happened sweetheart?" During their time playing tourist, Allie had adored the Mosasaurus. The massive prehistoric lizard had been the source of awe and delight, especially when it had rose out of the water the snatch up a shark.

"There was t-too m-much," she explained, stuttering a little over the words. "Her mind...It was like drowning." Matt gently rubbed her back and settled in for the wait, knowing he couldn't take Allie back in there. His daughter had little to no shields against this kind of thing and, occasionally, it put her out of her depth. Matt, was his considerably weaker gift, couldn't get lost in a creature the way she could and often found himself floundering when it came to helping her control it. He did the best he could but, at times like these, the best he could was never enough.

 

*

 

Owen met Nancy for lunch at the mosa enclosure. Because the animal rights team had come to see the massive undersea lizard in the morning, their usual routine had been thrown off and, while they'd rescheduled for the next morning, she'd convinced him to join her for lunch. "How'd it go?" he asked as he settled down next to her, one of the mosa's massive fins cutting the surface before she dove down and headed for deeper waters, apparently satisfied by whatever she'd sensed.

Nancy shrugged at him and took a bite of her sandwich before replying, "Not sure. There were a lot of decent questions and most of them seemed satisfied with the answers. A couple of them left early though. The dad and the little girl." Owen frowned at that, remembering exactly how fascinated Allie Harper had been about the raptors and wondering what exactly had driven them to leave before the others. "They go to visit the rex soon." She took another bite before asking, "How are the girls handling all this?"

"Better than I am," he admitted and Nancy nodded.

"I know what you mean. It's really nerve wracking to have someone around to judge your work. The auditors were just here to do risk assessments but these people are judging us and judging our girls."

"Yeah," Owen agreed, glad someone had finally put words to the nameless worry he'd been struggling with since Claire had told him the group was coming.

"Only eight more days left though," Nancy said with an optimistic smile. "Then everything can go back to normal." Owen tapped his water bottle against hers in a playful toast and she laughed before they each took a sip. "We still on for tomorrow?"

"We are," he told her and she nodded once.

"Good. I think my girl is getting a little restless since her routine got thrown off this morning." The mosa rose up again to survey them for a moment before diving once more, as if to reinforce Nancy's statement. She smiled, shook her head, and added, "Hopefully tomorrow morning will help calm her down."

 

*

 

Monday had been a long, stressful day and the last thing Claire Dearing had wanted to deal with before she sank into her comfortable bed was to deal with Rachel Warring. Unfortunately that was exactly what she was going to have to do. She had just been packing up for the day when her phone rang. It had been the office secretary informing her that a Ms. Warring was here demanding to speak to her. Claire had informed the flustered woman to send Rachel in and settled behind her desk to wait. Now she watched as Rachel Warring stormed into the office and stood in front of the desk, hands on her hips.

"Can I help you?" Claire asked, forcing her expression into something resembling pleasant and reminding herself, cheerfully, that if Rachel caused too much fuss then she could always have Carter escort the younger woman out.

"Well I certainly hope so," Rachel huffed, arms shifting to fold over her chest. Claire waited a moment but Rachel didn't say anything more.

"Was something about today unsatisfactory?"

"Yes," Rachel replied immediately. "I attempted to make some inquiries of Tyrannosaurus Rex trainers but they were rebuffed, and rather rudely too."

Claire reached up a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, already anticipating the irritated calls from Laurel and Josh the next morning. After what she had seen of Rachel Warring, the park manager had no doubt that the questions from Rachel had been borderline accusatory and neither Laurel nor Josh would have taken it well. "I'll speak to the trainers and set up an interview between you and them," she told Rachel as patiently as she could. "You have a full schedule tomorrow but I will endeavor to set something up for Wednesday."

"Good," Rachel said, expression still displeased as she turned and stormed out of the office. Claire watched her go and then, with the air of someone about to be sent to death row, she picked up her phone and began to dial.


	6. Chapter 6

The T-Rex visit had gone better for Allie than the Mosasaurus one had. While the massive, sea dwelling creature's mind had felt like a vast ocean on some kind of alien planet, the rex's mind felt more like a slightly out of focus, predatory presence. She had been able to vaguely sense the rex wandering about her enclosure, but it was nothing like the overwhelming focus of the mosa or the keen sharpness she had briefly touched with the raptors. This was how most animals felt to her. She could brush against their minds, but there was something so alien about them that she couldn't quite grasp them.

The herbivores they were seeing today were no different. Their minds were interconnected but fuzzy, like listening to a static filled radio station and only catching a few words. Except animals didn't really communicate in words. Instead they bounced ideas and concepts back and forth. You had to know the context the concept or idea was in before you could even start to understand what was happening around you. Sometimes Allie could put together the puzzle but most the time she was left in the dark with only snatches of ideas.

She was standing next to Grace who was talking enthusiastically to the man in charge of the Apatosaurus enclosure; Reggie...something. Her nose wrinkled for a moment as she struggled to come up with a last name and came up blank. After a moment she shrugged and turned her attention to the massive Apatosaurus female standing at the edge of the viewing platform as if she was patiently waiting for someone to notice her. She felt, not sharper than the other animals in the herd but more in focus somehow.

Allie made her way carefully around Grace and approached the edge of the viewing platform where the Apatosaurus stood. The large creature turned her head downwards a ways to survey her and Allie rose up on her tiptoes to get a better look. "Hi there," she said after a moment, a delighted smile crossing her face when the head lowered, the creature taking in her scent in appearance.

"Is there some way to tell them apart? A method you use?" Allie heard Grace ask as a whuff of warm breath made her hair flutter. She giggled and dropped her heels back down to the floor, still smiling up at the Apatosaurus.

"They all have different markings, if you know how to look for them," Reggie replied. "For example, this one's Becky. She's in charge of the herd and she's a bit darker around the crown of her head then the rest of them."

Becky studied Allie for a moment longer, as if taking her measure, and then turned her head towards Reggie, waiting to be patted a couple times on the nose before meandering off. Allie watched her go with a grin and then skipped over to Mom, bouncing lightly in anticipation of what other wonders the day would bring.

 

*

 

Owen arrived at the mosa area bright and early Tuesday morning with a a steaming cup of coffee and a warm chocolate chip muffin. Nancy was already seated on the edge of the platform, watching the mosa slowly shift about, rousing in the sunlight that was filtering from between thick white clouds. She smiled at him and patted the warm concrete beside her before settling in to reach out to her girl. He sat behind her, mind humming with the sounds of the park. The creatures were restless, probably because of the coming tropical storm, and therefore were louder than usual in the back of his mind.

His girls were unhappy about it. He was _their_ alpha, not anyone else's, and he could feel their minds pressing close to his through the bond, ready surround him and block everyone else out at a moment's notice. He breathed out softly as Nancy continued to sit quietly next to him, working on pushing the other dinosaurs back. Gradually the hum in his mind calmed, leaving on his girls behind. He blinked for the first time in several minutes and glanced over to see Nancy watch at him. Her muffin was gone and her cup of coffee was cradled between her hands.

"Are you back yet?" she asked and then laughed when he nodded almost warily. "You looked like you were concentrating on something," she added before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Blocking out the extra noise," he explained. "The animals here can feel the storm coming, and they aren't happy about it."

"At least you aren't out in the restricted section this time," Nancy replied with a quick grin. The last time a big storm had hit Isla Nublar, Owen had been in the restricted area with his girls. It had ended in him riding a Velociraptor back to where Claire was living in order to get help. He still didn't quite remember all of it.

"I learned my lesson last time," he informed her.

"I would hope so," she retorted, softening the comment by bumping her shoulder against his. They sat in contented silence for several minutes, the mosa's massive back cresting the water's surface before diving below. Nancy smiled fondly at the display before standing and offering him her hand. He took it, more out of politeness than anything else, and stood. "What does the day have in store for you?"

"Peter's coming to give the girls their bimonthly checkup this afternoon. I've got to run them beforehand so they don't pretend to stalk him again." Nancy shook her head, amusement in her smile.

"I'll let you get to that then. After all, we wouldn't want poor Peter to be traumatized for life and refuse to come back. One of the actual vets would have to do bimonthly checkups then." Owen snorted and lifted a hand to wave at Nancy as she made her way across the cement to where a set of stairs led into a waiting room for her to prepare for the first show of the day in. Then he turned and made his way down the other set of stairs, heading back towards his girls.

 

*

 

Claire made her way down to the security office during her lunch break, ignoring the hunger playing havoc with her stomach. Dan Carter was on his cell phone arguing with someone, from the sound of it one of his security men, but he spared a smile for her and waved her in. She scanned the office, taking in the myriad of camera angles and the partially eaten sandwich on the head of security's desk. She stepped carefully past it and caught sight of Elias Lorenzo.

Lorenzo was leaning close to a glowing computer screen, muttering under his breath. From his last report, Claire knew that the virus in the cameras was being more difficult than he'd expected to eradicate. Lorenzo didn't seem to notice her presence, typing away as he struggled to isolate the damaged code and correct it. She waited a moment and then cleared her throat. No response. There was a muffled noise behind her and she turned to see Dan mime poking someone. She smiled and nodded at him before turning back to tap Lorenzo lightly on the shoulder. The man jumped, swore, and then rushed to apologize when he saw it was her.

"What can I do for you Miss Dearing?" he questioned.

"I wanted to know if there was some way to temporarily add more cameras to the t-rex paddock," she replied. Last night, after Rachel Warring had stormed her way out of Claire's office, the park manager had called both Laurel and Josh, leaving messages on their phones before making her way to bed to toss and turn. She had vague nightmares of the i-rex's rampage and Rachel's sneering face. It was the nightmares that had driven her here today. She was determined to avoid another disaster like the i-rex and, with Rachel's reputation for freeing animals, she wanted to ensure that the t-rex paddock remained closed when Rachel went to visit alone.

"Yeah," Lorenzo told her after a moment. "I can rig something up. How soon do you need it?"

"Rachel Warring is gone to visit Josh, Laurel, and the rex without the rest of the group tomorrow at eleven. I need everything set up by then so we can ensure she doesn't let it out." Lorenzo nodded, digging for a spare piece of paper and scribbling himself a note before turning back to the computer. "Thank you," Claire said, even though she was fairly certain he wasn't paying attention to her.

She turned and saw that, at some point, Carter had finished with his conversation. "Trouble?" she questioned.

"Nothing serious," he replied with a smile that reached his eyes. "Just someone with a few complaints about his assigned area to patrol. He'll get over it though."

"That's good." She paused and then asked, "How have our special guests been behaving themselves?"

"Perfectly well, actually," Carter replied. "Mr. Trenton likes to take walks during the evenings but he mostly stays away from the enclosures. Otherwise they stay where they're supposed to, even the little girl."

"That's good." They stood in companionable silence for a moment and then she added, "You'll call me if something unusual happens?" She knew the answer before he even opened his mouth.

"Of course." Claire smiled and then flushed a little as her stomach rumbled. Carter grinned openly and added, "Now go get some food instead of wasting your lunch break down here with us."


	7. Chapter 7

Tropical storm Kate did not upgrade into a hurricane, which was some of the best news Claire had gotten all week. She'd flipped on her television this morning in time to catch the weather and read, via English subtitles, that Kate was slowly but surely losing power. Jurassic World would board up windows and tie things down but the storm shouldn't be bad enough to keep them out of business for more than a few hours. She smiled, flipped the television off, and headed towards her shower. When she emerged, the red light was blinking on her answering machine to inform her that she already had three messages. Her work day had begun.

The first message was from Lorenzo, informing her that there were extra cameras set up. He sounded exhausted but pleased with himself and Claire made a mental note to do something nice for him to make up for the extra work he'd been given. The next message was Carter letting her know that if she wanted to supervise Rachel Warring's visit to the t-rex paddock, she could. The final message was from Zach and Gray. She grinned as her nephews chattered over one another, telling her all about their recent projects at school. The message ended with her sister, Karen, saying she hoped that Claire would call soon. Claire smiled, scribbled a note reminding herself to call her sister, and headed out the door.

Because of the approaching tropical storm, Claire's day was busier than usual. She set an alarm on her phone to alert her when it was a quarter til eleven and settled down to send out emails with orders on how to prepare the park for the storm. She also made an announcement that rides such as the Cretaceous Cruise would close at noon today and the entire park would be closed by three because of tropical storm Kate. Her phone chimed just after the last message and she flipped off the alarm. She breezed past her assistant and headed downstairs to the security room.

Rachel's visit to the Tyrannosaurus Rex paddock went as well as it possibly could. Although Laurel and Josh both looked like they had reached the end of their ropes, nothing was broken. Rachel marched off in a huff at eleven thirty-five at Claire walked back up the flights of steep stairs to her office. She settled in for more work, keeping an eye on the approaching tropical storm. Right now, it was due to approach at four. Dark clouds were already looming on the horizon and the radar showed a wall of rain coming their way.

By three o'clock, when the last of the park guests were leaving or returning to their hotel rooms, it looked like it was late evening instead of mid afternoon. Thunder rumbled, the sound gradually growing louder as the storm approached, and the lights flickered a couple times. After the second power blink, Claire shut down her computer, just in case. She had fried a laptop her junior year of college in a freak lightning strike and, despite now having money to replace a dead computer, she had no desire to repeat the process. Furthermore, the computer would do her no good if the power was blown out. Twenty minutes after she shut down the computer, the power blinked once and then Jurassic World was plunged into darkness.

 

*

 

Cole Trenton had always liked storms. Something about the wildness of it all made him feel incredibly alive, as if his bloodstream was filled with the same lightning as the sky. Maybe that was why he'd been drawn to Rachel. She was exactly like a storm, wild and uncontainable, and the adventures she dragged him on made his heart soar and his body crackle with energy. She'd been positively shy when they'd met the first time, not blushing but simply uncomfortable and cautious in a way she never was during an assignment. Her social skills hadn't been great either, something he had to admit hadn't changed over the years. Eventually though, the excitement had faded away.

He'd been tempted to leave her more than once, but part of him was terrified over what she would do unfettered. With him around, most of Rachel's radical ideas were tempered. She'd let a few animals loose before he'd managed to stop her, but she hadn't actually released predators to run on the wild or dumped people into marine tanks to see how they liked being confined. His worry wasn't helped by the knowledge of what had happened the last time someone had broken up with Rachel.

The story was one that had quickly passed through college campuses by word of mouth, though how Rachel had kept it off the internet was a mystery to him. The story said that Rachel had thrown a fit sophomore year of college thinking that he was cheating on her. He'd denied all claims and, when she'd kept accusing him over a series of days, he'd broken up with her. He'd made the mistake of going home the following weekend. When he returned, his apartment had been trashed, a good chunk of it burnt, and the contents of his underwear drawer were hanging from various flagpoles near campus. There had been no evidence for police to tie the event to Rachel but everyone had known she'd done it. He didn't want to know what would happen if he left Rachel, especially in the middle of an assignment like this.

Thunder rumbled overhead and he headed towards the window as the first fat raindrops pattered down on the roof. A flash of lightning seemed to cut the sky in half, and when his vision cleared he saw a shape that looked suspiciously like Rachel racing through the rain. "Rachel?" he called, turning away from the window and hoping in vain that she would answer. Nothing. A moment later, the lights went out. A sudden, terrifying suspicious rushed through him and, before he was consciously aware of what he was doing, he was sprinting out the front door and into the driving rain.

 

An hour and a half of searching resulted in nothing. Cole was completely soaked and slowly forgetting how it felt to be warm but there was no sign of Rachel. He was just beginning to consider turning back when he saw the first dinosaur. The baryonyx was standing across the street, letting out a confused sounding warble. The rain looked as if it were trying to flatten the spines on the creature's head and even the turquoise scales around it's eyes seemed to be muted by the downpour. Cole froze as a second baryonyx, close to the same size as the first, seemed to simply appear out of the rain. A deep rumble of thunder made them jump and they scanned their surroundings almost nervously. That wasn't good. Cole had spent enough time around wild animals as part of his job to know that a nervous animal was likely to lash out at an unexpected noise.

Lightning flashed and the creatures cringed, letting out plaintive little cries. Their noises were answered but what sounded like a distant, irritated growl further back, and the pair turned and headed towards the noise. Cole let out a shuddering breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Then he turned and headed deeper into the park. He knew exactly where Rachel was heading next.

The trees were creaking and groaning when he reached the t-rex paddock. Cole gasped for breath as rain blown into his face stung his cheeks. He could barely make out Rachel a few feet away, her damp hair plastered to her face as she bowed her head over the glowing screen of her phone. " _Rachel_ ," he yelled. " _What are you DOING?"_ She didn't answer him at first, and the click of the unlocking door reaching him over the next grumble of thunder.

" _They're WILD ANIMALS,_ " she yelled when she turned to face him. _"Not some kind of circus sideshow. They shouldn't be locked up. They should be free to roam."_

 _"There are innocent people here,_ " Cole shrieked. That was when the ground shook.

Rachel turned with a delighted laugh, rapture on her face, as the thundering footsteps approached. Her arms flung open wide, as if to greet the massive predator with a hug, and Cole's only thought was that she had gone completely mad.

The rex was visible, even though the rain, and Cole felt all color drain from his face. He was a frozen statue, barely daring to breathe, as the massive carnivore hesitated at the open fence, studying it with frightening intelligence. The creature took a cautious step forward, nudging the gate, and when nothing shocked or stopped it, it took another step forward. "That's it," Rachel crooned, her voice surprisingly tender as it filtered through the rain. "Come on out." The rex honed in on Rachel's voice, took another step forward, and then froze, staring directly at where she was standing. "Just a little further," Rachel told it, beckoning it close.

That was apparently the only signal the t-rex needed because it lunged in a surprisingly swift movement and snapped its jaws around her upper half. Rachel didn't even have time to scream before she was little more that bloody hunks of meat, her bones cracking under the rex's strong teeth and jaws. Cole's own scream caught in his throat, the choked sound not even escaping his throat. He was trembling slightly as the creature left Rachel's lower half lying on the ground, lifted up her head, and let out a roar.

The sound seemed to sink into Cole's very bones and it took all his effort not to move. The rex hadn't seemed to see Rachel until she'd moved, despite having been looking right at her. He could only hope that the creature wouldn't be able to see him if he didn't run. The rex sniffed the air and then moved, heading in the direction of some of the other paddocks. She passed only a few feet away from him, and her tail struck him hard in the chest, sending him flying back to crash to the ground. He lay there, trying to remember how to breath as the storm raged on above him.

 

*

 

Owen jolted awake from his nap, an attempt to ward off a blooming headache, to insistent prodding over the bond. _The gate is open,_ Blue told him as a bolt of lightning illuminated his ceiling.

 _Huh?_ he managed to get out in response, his blurry mind trying to process what she was telling him.

 _The gate is open,_ Blue repeated, this time practically shoving the accompanying image into his mind. Owen was on his feet in an instant, scrambling into clothes and shoes before lunging out into the downpour. Flashes of lightning illuminated his path to the raptor paddock which, true to Blue's word, was standing open. His girls were standing just on the other side waiting for him and making vaguely anxious noises.

"You didn't open this, did you?" he asked as he inspected the gate, already knowing the answer. Very few gates were raptor proof, but the ones with electronic locks were. Blue or the other girls would have been forced to damage electronics to let themselves out and this lock was simply turned off.

 _No,_ came the response and his breath whooshed out of him as if he'd just been winded. This was bad. The locks didn't shut off even in the event of a power failure, a detail that had been added thanks to Ian Malcolm's initial visits to Jurassic World before the i-rex incident, which meant that someone had hacked this. And if someone had hacked one lock, they could hack them all, which meant there could be more dinosaurs loose.

"Stay here," he told his girls. "I'll be back in a minute." Their worry followed him as he sprinted back to his trailer.

He'd left the door wide open in his haste to check the gate and water was beginning to pool around it but that didn't matter. All that mattered was finding his cell phone so he could make a couple very important phone calls. The first call, once he located his phone, went to Dan Carter. "Carter," the man said on the second ring.

"It's Owen," he replied. "We have a serious problem."

"What kind of problem?" Carter sounded a proper mix of worried and calm, as if he knew whatever was coming wasn't going to be good but that panicking about it wouldn't help.

"Someone hacked into the lock on the raptor pen and opened it," Owen told the head of security. "I doubt that's the only paddock that's been breached."

There was a pause and then Carter said, "Damn" in a matter-of-fact tone. "Our backup generator is just kicking on so I'll see if Lorenzo can get the cameras up and running. I'll alert my people too, tell them to get the tranq guns ready."

"I'm going to call Claire," Owen replied as thunder boomed.

"Good," came the reply. "Be careful Grady." Then Carter hung up on him.

Owen was dialing the instant he heard the click and his leg bounced impatiently as he listened to the phone ring. Claire picked up after the third ring, barked out a harried sounding hello. "Claire, it's Owen," he told her. "I've got some bad news for you."

"Oh no," Claire said, faintly, sounding almost as if she didn't want to know what was going on. Owen knew better. If dinosaurs were going to try to eat her again, Claire definitely would want to know.

"Someone hacked into the lock on the raptor paddock and left the gate open," he told her. "Lorenzo and Carter are going to check and see if there are any more open."

"Oh god," he heard Claire breathe. Then he heard her suck in a shuddering breath and she added, "Thank you for telling me." Lightning flashed and one of his girls let out a bellowing call before he could reply. "Go check on your girls Owen," Claire ordered, probably hearing the sound through the phone. She sounded more like her confidant self again. "And stay safe." Then she too hung up on him. Owen tucked his phone in his damp pocket, glad he'd spent the extra money on a water proof model, and raced out into the rain once more. He had his girls were probably about to have a lot of work to do.


	8. Chapter 8

Allie was lying on the end of the bed in the master bedroom watching the storm through a window when her mother rushed in. "Get your coat and shoes, sweetheart," Mom said, voice sounding rushed and panicky.

"Why?" she asked, already sliding off the bed and struggling with her jacket as the rain continued to thunder down from the skies like someone had transplanted a waterfall to a position somewhere right above their heads.

"They're evacuating the island, Ladybug," Dad told her, appearing in the doorway. He was already wearing his rain jacket and the boots he used for hiking.

"Why?" she asked again, jacket in place and shoes in hand now as Mom rushed around the room, throwing a few things into a bag.

"We'll tell you when we get on the ferry," Mom said, voice going a little sharp at the end and into the accent she did whenever she was worried. Then she leaned over and kissed Allie's forehead. "Sorry sweetheart, didn't mean to snap, but we really need to get going. Grace and Adam are waiting for us."

"What about Cole and Rachel?" Allie asked, bouncing to her feet. She'd wrinkled her nose when she'd said Rachel's name but she didn't miss Mom and Dad's worried looks.

"We'll knock on their door and make sure they're ready to leave," Dad said, voice firm. Mom nodded and reached over to take Allie's hand.

"Come on sweetheart. Let's go."

 

The rain outside hurt when it pounded down on her shoulders as they stood outside Cole and Rachel's temporary home. Dad pounded on the door again, this time so hard that the door shook a little, but no one answered. "Try the door," Grace called. Mom was standing next to Allie on the left, holding her hand, and Grace was standing on Allie's right holding Adam's hand. The two of them blocked most of the wind but they couldn't keep the rain from battering her.

Dad tried the handle and the door swung open easily, revealing the dark house beyond. "Cole?" he called. "Rachel?" Neither one of them answered. He turned to them and said, "Come on. It'll be faster to look for them if we all go in."

Allie practically dragged Mom into the house, eager to get out of the rain. Grace and Adam followed, heading towards the kitchen area, and Mom motioned for Allie to follow them. She could hear their hushed whispers behind her as she hurried forward to grab the tail of Grace's long, blue jean material shirt. Grace slowed down, allowing Allie to catch up and wrapping an arm around her. "Stay close. We don't know what's lurking around the corner?" Allie frowned at that. She doubted Grace was talking about Rachel, despite the animals rights activist's normally sour temper, and the dinosaurs were locked up so what did Grace mean? And why was everybody acting so jumpy?

Adam led the way into an empty kitchen, the only sound being the rain pounding on the rooftop. "Nothing here," he said and Grace let out a breath she'd been holding.

"What's going on?" Allie demanded, her arms folding over her chest. The adults were worried about something, probably something dangerous, but they weren't telling her what. It was making her angry.

Grace and Adam exchanged a look before Adam came over to crouch in front of her. "Something bad happened," he told her. "In the park." He glanced up at Grace, who hesitated a moment and then nodded, before looking back at her. "Someone let some of the dinosaurs out and, judging by the fact Rachel isn't here, we think she might have something to do with it."

"Oh," Allie said softly. "What about Cole?"

"We don't know, Allie," Grace told her, voice equally soft. "He's not in here but he could have already gone with an evac group. Or he could have helped Rachel." Allie nodded solemnly. She liked Cole, he'd been nice, but she didn't know him well enough to judge whether or not he'd help Rachel. Grace offered her hand and the little girl took it, allowing herself to be led back into the entryway. Mom and Dad were waiting for them, solemn looks on their faces.

"They aren't in the kitchen," Adam reported.

"They aren't in the bedroom either," Dad said.

"We should leave." Mom's voice was loud an anxious. "We've probably already missed the group. We can't miss the ferry."

"We can't leave people behind either Jody," Dad protested.

"We have Allie to worry about." Mom's voice got very high and Adam shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"We can't leave Cole and Rachel, Mom," Allie piped up and her mother let out a shuddering breath.

"Okay," she said. "Okay, okay, okay. You and the others can stay if you want. I'm taking Allie to the docks."

"We'll meet you there with Cole and Rachel," Dad said before Allie could protest. Then he came and crouched in front of her. "Be good for Mom, Ladybug," he told her. "And I'll see you soon."

"Okay Daddy," she said softly, lunging forward to hug him tightly before pulling back. Mom was waiting for her by the door, hand held out towards her. Allie took one last look at the assembled group before hurrying forward to take that hand, Grace and Adam trailing behind them. If something went wrong, she might never see Dad again. She really hoped something wouldn't go wrong.

 

*

 

Dan Carter was not having a good day. He was staring at rain soaked camera screens, looking at cage after empty cage. Someone had hacked into the locks and opened the majority of the cages. While the baby animals, the mosa, and a few others were still safely locked away but the meager amount of predators Jurassic World boasted were loose. While the raptors weren't a problem and the baryonyx seemed to be confused and huddling under trees and street lamps in small groups, the t-rex was a different story. She was prowling through different camera angles, though so far she was away from other people, and there was what looked like part of a human body lying in front of her open enclosure.

"Any luck looking back over the tapes?" Carter asked. The cameras, like the locks, had been designed to run even if the power turned off, but the virus that had been messing with a few of them was also messing with the recordings.

"None," Lorenzo growled, fingers flying over the keyboard. "It's shifting faster now and I'm having trouble keeping up. I'll get it though."

"I'm sure you will," Carter said, turning his attention towards the cameras showing the evacuation of the island. He and Ms. Dearing had decided, after much debate, to remove the visitors from Isla Nublar. A dinosaur was easily capable of breaking down a door, after all. Owen Grady's girls had proved that when the handler had gotten sick a couple months ago and collapsed. They had ripped the door off its hinges in their haste to get to him. Carter would rather not have other predators emulate that behavior in search of screaming tourists.

So far, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Men with tranq guns lined the streets, each standing a few feet apart with their backs to the curious and worried tourists. They were alert for any signs of danger, but so far, the animals were staying near their enclosures, most of them content with the environment around them. The t-rex was the only animal he was seriously worried about. She was prowling empty streets dangerously near the evacuation, and Carter had the sneaking suspicion that she was hunting.

The rex was from the original Jurassic Park. She alone had been triumphant over the wreck of the original park on Isla Nublar and she had killed humans before. It was possible that she'd taken a liking to either the taste or that kind of hunt. If so, they would be in serious trouble.

As if hearing his thoughts the massive predator on one of the screens turned and headed towards the evacuation site. The last group of people were walking the route to the docks, the animal rights group. This was not good. The last thing Jurassic World needed was for an entire animal rights group to be eaten by a t-rex. He lifted the radio and hit the correct button to put him in contact with his crew. It was time to put them on high alert.

 

*

 

Jody found herself peering nervously into the shadows beyond the Jurassic World security personnel. Rain continued to pound down as she, Grace, Adam, and Allie made their way down the slick street. Puddles were everywhere, their surfaces rippling with the impact of raindrops. Tree leaves drooped under the force of the downpour. Then the ground jumped under them.

Allie, who had been clinging to Jody's hand and glancing behind them periodically, stumbled and fell with a startled cry. Grace spun around as the ground shook again, dragging Adam with her. The shaking was getting stronger now and Jody turned too, pulling her daughter to her feet and cradling her close. The security personnel were shifting, studying the surrounding jungle nervously. This was the part of the trek to the dock that was surrounded mostly by jungle and usually not taken by foot but there had been a worry that animals might be attracted by the sound of moving vehicles. They hadn't wanted to risk it. Now it looked like it wasn't going to matter.

The shaking stopped for a moment and the a haunting roar filled the air. At the same time, Allie turned and looked up, eyes wide and scared. "Mom," she said, voice wavering a little. "I think the t-rex is out."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for how long it took me to get this chapter out! *hides face in shame* I got distracted by work and Call of Duty. Hopefully this makes up for the long wait!

Rain was coming down in sheets, but that didn't stop the creatures of Jurassic World from stirring and realizing their pens were open. Owen could feel their discover, Blue and the others keeping them distant enough that the knowing didn't overwhelm him. Still, his sense of the dinosaurs had grown stronger of the months since the indominus rex. He could feel that the herbivores were upset by the sudden unlocking of their paddocks. They felt happy and safe inside their enclosures, where predators could not reach them, but now with the gates open they felt uneasy. The predators shared no such worries. An almost overwhelming sense of curiosity emanated from them, and Owen had no doubt that they would soon be out and exploring if they weren't already.

He stood in the middle of the downpour, his girls gathered around him for reassurance. They were both excited and confused about the open paddock, knowing that it wasn't normally open to allow them to wander as they wished. They were not afraid though. Isla Nublar was their territory and they could handle anything she threw at them. Even this.

Owen's phone rang, the sound barely reaching him over the pounding of the continual downpour. "Yeah?" he said by way on answer, straining to hear the static filled speech of the person on the other end of the line.

"The Rex is out of containment," was Carter's grim response. "And hunting." A pause, as if Carter was letting that sink in, and then the other man added, "She isn't the only one. Lorenzo managed to get most the cameras back on line, and they're showing that the predator paddocks are all empty. The guests were being evacuated but several of the Animal Rights group have gone missing and the Rex attacked the tail end of the last evacuation group." Another pause and then Carter said, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I need you and your girls to help round up the loose dinosaurs."

"We'll do what we can," Owen promised. "But it's going to take us a while." The roads between the raptor enclosure and the main park were mostly dirt, and the rain would turn them all to thick, sticky mud. It would make for slow going.

 

*

 

When Allie had been little, Jody'd been given some surprisingly sage advice from an elderly woman in the middle of a supermarket. "How old is she?" the woman had asked and Jody had thought little of it. Allie had been one and a half, and adventurous, but people were always stopping to coo over her.

"One and a half," Jody had replied, reaching out to snag the back of her tiny, lively daughter's shirt. "And trouble."

"And sometimes you wonder whether or not having kids is worth it, right?" the woman had questioned knowingly, eyes twinkling.

Jody had nodded, knowing there was an exasperated expression on her face, and then said, "Allie, sweetie, stay here."

"But Mommy," the little girl had whined, tugging against the grip on her shirt.

"No Allie," Jody'd said, voice stern and annoyed. Allie's face had crumpled up at that and she'd dropped to the floor with a wail, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. It was the kind of crying that guaranteed someone was going to start staring at Jody like she was a terrible person.

"No, don't do that sweetheart," the old woman had cooed, kneeling slowly down in front of Allie. "Your Mommy loves you very much, and she's just trying to protect you. So be good for her, okay?" Allie had nodded, sniffing a little, and climbed back up on her feet. Jody had known from experience at that point that in a couple minutes her daughter would be racing off to investigate something on her little chubby toddler legs. "I had two of my own," the old woman had informed her. "Trust me, they're worth it. And you'll be surprised one day how far you'll go to protect them." Then she turned and wandered off down the aisle.

Jody hadn't thought much about it at the time, but now, staring at the dangerously close muzzle of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the full meaning of the statement sunk in.

The Rex had taken down the security personnel first. She'd emerged from the jungle like some sort of beautiful nightmare and the personnel had moved with Jody, Grace, and Adam had frozen, Jody pulling Allie tight to her side. The Rex had honed in on the movement and chomped down on the unfortunate security personnel were nothing more than appetizers. It's sight, according to all of Alan Grant's work, was based on movement so Jody had hoped it wouldn't stick around if they stayed still but to no avail. The creature's muzzle was so close that she could smell her fetid breath when it puffed out of it..

The Rex's head lifted and she let out a low rumble before turning her gaze towards the again. Jody swallowed hard, knowing that the creature knew they were there. It's nose might not be the best but it would have had to have been without the ability to smell to miss Jody's scent from that close. "Allie, sweetheart," Jody said, fighting to keep her voice steady. "I need you to do something for me, okay?" She felt Allie nod against her side and swallowed hard, eyes still fixed on the Rex as she forced herself to continue. "When I tell you, I need you to run with Grace and Adam, okay?"

"Mom?" Allie said, voice soft and scared.

"I'll be right behind you," Jody promised, trying not to choke on unshed tears. "I promise Ladybug." Allie nodded and Jody slowly turned her head towards Grace and Adam. Grace met Jody's gaze, her own deep brown eyes welling with tears.

"We'll keep her safe," the other woman promised, voice low, and Jody believed her.

"I love you Alyssa Marie," she said, voice surprisingly steady considering the amount of tears she was forcing down. "And I'll be right behind you. Now, run."

Allie slipped out from her side, the sound her her feet smacking on the ground almost louder than the thundering of Jody's heartbeat. Grace and Adam were running right behind her, a physical shield between the little girl and the massive carnivorous dinosaur. It's head swung around and Jody faced it, lifting a hand to wipe away unshed tears. "Hey, you there!" she yelled, jumping up and down and waving her arms in an effort to catch the Rex's attention. "Terrible lizard!" The massive head swung her direction and Jody managed a weak smile. "Yes, I'm talking to you."

A low rumble and the massive creature fixated on her. When she'd been in college, she'd daydreamed of the re-emergence of John Hammond's Jurassic Park. "Wouldn't it have been wonderful to be able to see real live dinosaurs?" she'd gushed to her roommate, too star struck by the idea of the park to pay attention to the warnings of Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, and Ellie Sattler. Now she had her answer. She turned to try and catch one last glimpse of her darling daughter before the ancient predator's mouth enveloped her whole.

 

*

 

Sometimes Elisa Lorenzo really hated his job. The Indominous Incident had been one instance. This was another such event. A virus the likes of which would make any computer programmer pull out his hair had shut down the system. By the time he'd gotten it back to a somewhat functional state, there were two forms by the t-rex paddock and the Rex herself was hunting humans. Furthermore, the virus refused to be contained. He'd gotten as many cameras online as possible but the virus continued to take them down, one by one. He ground his teeth in frustration, knowing there was only one solution. "I'm gonna have to wipe the camera system," he announced.

Claire Dearing, who had just stepped into the room, paused, one heel lifted off the ground. "I beg your pardon," she said in a strained voice.

"I need to wipe the camera system," Lorenzo repeated, feeling the pounding of his headache increase. "It's the only way to get rid of this virus. If I don't it'll just keep shutting the cameras and we'll never get it fully operational."


	10. Chapter 10

Cole blinked his eyes open, wincing as rain water dripped into his eyes. He blinked the water away and through mostly closed lids he squinted towards the sky. Each breath he pulled in made his chest ache and he guessed he had some broken ribs. When he was nine, Cole Trenton had climbed to the top of the massive Oak at the back of one of his father's soybean fields. When he'd fallen out of it, he'd cracked two of his ribs and it had felt something like this. The pain level hadn't been this high, but then again he hadn't been flung by a massive t-rex's tail. The thought made him breathe out an agonizing laugh that brought tears to his eyes.

He could feel the puddle growing around him from the continual downpour, the rain the only sound. That was comforting. It meant the Rex hadn't come back to finish him off.

Cole's eyes felt heavy and it seemed as if each breath was getting harder to pull in. The world began to spin around him, the falling rain drops becoming glittering spirals in the dark night sky, and he watched, fascinated, as the thunder rumbled distantly in his ears, the sound soft compared to the thundering of his heartbeat. Another breath eased out of him in a wheeze and he allowed himself to drift away.

 

He woke up again when a hand slapped his face lightly. He blinked up in confusion at the sudden circle of a flashlight burning his retinas. He flinched a little and the stern looking woman murmured and apology, flipping off the light attached on a band on her head. There was a word for it, but in his current state Cole couldn't think of what it was called. "This one's alive," she called.

The man who came over was someone Cole actually recognized. Dan Carter, head of Jurassic World security. "Mr. Carter," he rasped out, chest burning.

"Mr. Trenton," Carter replied. "How are you?"

Cole managed a weak smile of self-depreciation as he considered everything that had happened in the past few hours. "I've been better."

"We're going to get you to medical," Carter informed him and Cole would have nodded in response if he'd had any energy left. The world was beginning to fade again. "Rachel's computer," he managed to rasp out. "The door codes..." Then the world faded away again into blissful darkness.

 

*

 

"Dearing," Claire said briskly by way of answering her phone. She had spent the time since Carter had gone out with the rest of his security personnel to check the surrounding area sitting in the spare chair while Lorenzo worked on wiping the camera system. The man was muttering unhappily under his breath while he did so, fingers flying across keys.

"Cole Trenton's alive," Carter reported briskly. "And Rachel Warring, or what's left of her, is definitely dead."

Claire wasn't sure whether or not she should feel sad about that. While she was relieved that Mr. Trenton had survived the Rex's initial rampage, part of her was very happy that the massive carnivore had eaten Rachel. She hoped it didn't give the poor dinosaur indigestion. "Will Mr. Trenton recover?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"He's being taken to medical now but Delaney thinks it's just a couple broken ribs."

"That's good," Claire told Carter. "Call me if you run into anything else." Then she hung up and turned to Lorenzo, who had settled back into his seat.

"It's done," he told her. "I had to isolate the cameras on to a separate system so I wouldn't wipe the entire computer system, but now all we need to do is wait for it to reboot."

A smile slipped on to Claire's face that was mirrored by Lorenzo. Finally, a piece of good news in the middle of this mess.

That was when her phone rang again. She glanced at the number and then immediately wished for a strong cup of coffee. The number on the readout belonged to Simon Masrani, and he was going to want a report of what was going on. It was not a report she looked forward to giving. As she lifted the phone towards her ear, walking towards the hallway, she heard Lorenzo's phone ring behind her.

 

*

 

Allie's eyes burned with tears as she clung to Grace's hand. The tall woman was making sure to take smaller strides so that the little girl could keep up without stumbling. Allie appreciated the consideration, distantly, but her thoughts seemed to be locked in a loop that kept her mute and crying. Mom was dead. The t-rex had eaten her like she was nothing more than a snack instead of Allie's _mom_. Just a couple days ago, Allie'd been looking at the magnificent creature from behind the safety of extremely strong glass. It had been amazing and just the touch of the Rex's mind had been awe inspiring. Now part of Allie hated the creature.

She'd felt the cool satisfaction when that amazing monster had eaten Mom in one gulp. Felt the overwhelming sense of satisfaction that had been the Rex's dominant emotion as she had swallowed Mom down. It made Allie's stomach churn and her eyes well with fresh tears even though crying hurt by this point. A part of her chest ached like her heart was shattering and all she wanted to do was curl up and sink through the ground to some point where she wouldn't hurt anymore.

"Just a little bit further," Grace told her, voice shaking and clammy hand clinging tighter to Allie's. "Then we'll rest, okay?"

Allie nodded, sniffling a little. Her words had abandoned her the instant Mom had died, leaving her feeling empty and slow and stupid.

They settled down underneath the canopy of a broad leaved tree, Grace curling an arm around Allie's slim shoulders while Adam settled across from them. Both the adults looked pale, like they were going into shock and Adam was shaking ever so slightly. "Are you okay Allie?" Grace asked, voice coming out all empty and wrong. Still at least she wasn't speaking to Allie in that high pitched voice oozing worry that adults normally did when they thought little kids had been traumatized by something.

Allie opened her mouth to say she was fine but that wasn't what escaped her. "She said she'd be right behind us. She _promised._ " Even to her own ears, Allie's voice sounded plaintive and so very young.

Grace opened her mouth to say something, and then shut it again as if she wasn't certain what to say. That was when Adam reached over and pulled Allie into a hug. His shaking arms were squeezing her just a little too tight and Allie's nose was mushed against his collarbone but she didn't care. Instead she clung back and sniffled and sobbed and breathed in the faint scent of sea water that always seemed to cling to Adam. Grace joined them, smelling faintly of sandalwood and jasmine as her long arms wrapped around them both.

The first warbling noise startled them all. Grace's chin lifted immediately from where it had been resting on the top of Allie's head and she said very softly, "Don't make any sudden movements."

Allie lifted her head carefully from Adam's collarbone and froze as she took in the dinosaur staring directly at them. It was around Dad's height, which put it at about six feet tall. Its body was mostly tan with darker brown stripes centered with gold that probably would have shimmered slightly in the sunlight. Several vivid green stripes were on its face and its mouth was full of needle shaped teeth. Allie felt her breath catch as she studied the predator. Just like the t-rex, this creature was beautiful, leaving Allie both captivated and terrified.

Adam twisted his head around slowly and then asked in what was barely a whisper, "What is that?"

"Metri...metra...something," Grace mumbled, eyes still fixed on the predator. "We saw them on the Cretaceous Cruise."

"Metriacanthosaurus," Allie mumbled into Adam's shoulder.

"It's definitely a carnivore with those teeth," Adam murmured as it moved forward a step, tilted its head, and warbled at them again. "The question is, is there more of them?"

"I don't know," was Grace's soft reply. A pause as they took in the curious predator. "I'm going to stand up very slowly. You two stay put, okay?" Neither one of them nodded but Allie's legs had turned to jello under the Metriacanthosaurus's predatory gaze and, judging by Adam's slightly shaking, he wasn't doing much better.

Grace's arms slowly dropped away from them and she slowly stood. The predator's head lifted, tracking Grace's movements. It warbled again, and then let out a louder cry, the sound almost bird like. A second Metriacanthosaurus came into view from the left, letting out a warble of its own as it took in the humans. It's mind, when Allie finally dared to reach out, was confused like it didn't understand why the humans weren't behind some kind of barrier. As the two observed Grace, the confusion was quickly turning to curiosity. They weren't hungry, their keepers made sure they were well fed, but there was something shark like about those curious emotions, and sharks investigated things by biting them.

"Allie, Adam, I need you to stand up very slowly," Grace said as a third Metricanthosaurus came into view between the other two. Instead of letting her stand, Adam kept her in his arms as he rose, holding her close. Allie didn't mind. Right now, with that predatory curiosity washing over her, her legs felt like jello. "Now let's back away slowly."

Adam was the first to back a step away, Grace following him ever so slowly. Three sets of predatory eyes fixed on their every movement. Adam took another step, Grace moving right with him, and then another. Then he stumbled. The Metricanthosaurus let out a coughing sounding bark and then lunged forward so it was only inches from Adam's chest. "Grace," Adam said, voice soft. "I think we should run."

"Yeah," Grace said, licking her lips. Allie clung tightly to Adam, arms clasped around his neck. The two adults backed up another step, Adam's arms ceasing to shake as their grip on Allie firmed. Then they turned and ran.

 

*

 

Matt found himself half expecting to see Noah's Ark looming out of the shadows of Jurassic World as the rain continued to pound down around him. He knew it was just tropical storm Kate dropping her wrath on their heads, but it felt akin to the biblical flood. Part of him wished that Grace or Adam had come with him, but he was also glad that they were safely off the island by now. Already on his search for Rachel and Cole, he'd encountered half a dozen Baryonyxes and he'd spotted what looked like a Suchomimus trying to hunt in the river the main street of Jurassic World had become. Both times, Matt had ducked out of sight and prayed that the predators didn't catch his scent.

The animals at Jurassic World might have been well fed and happy, but there was no telling what they would do if they encountered a human without an enclosure to keep everyone safe. The dinosaurs here were wild, and wild animals were unpredictable if you hadn't studied them. The last thing he wanted to do was to provoke them somehow. He just wanted to find Rachel and Cole so he could join Jody, Allie, Adam, and Grace.


	11. Chapter 11

By the time he and his girls arrived at the main street, Owen felt like he was coated in a liberal covering of mud. His girls weren't much better. They'd been following the motorcycle and it had kicked up mud everywhere, including on his beautiful girls. Echo was unhappy about this, shaking her head to fling some of the loose mud off her head, while Charlie whined unhappily and danced back and forth on her feet. Owen sympathized with them. He was going to need a long, hot shower after this entire mess was over with.

Carter was waiting for them just beyond the entrance to the park, a couple grim faced security personnel standing a few feet behind. They greeted one another with nods as Owen swung his leg over his bike and stepped forward. "How's the situation?"

"We have a pack of Baryonyxes ransacking the food court area, a Suchomimus stalking the stretches of road where the water is deepest, and the Metriacanthosauruses are wandered around somewhere but we lost track of them in the jungle," Carter replied. "The t-rex is hunting humans."

"She got a taste at Jurassic Park," Owen replied grimly. "Any casualties?"

"I'm getting confirmation now but before the cameras went out we saw several of my men get taken down by her. Aside from that, Rachel Warring was bit in half and Cole Trenton's on his way to medical to get checked for broken ribs. The rest of the Animal Rights group is wandering around somewhere but otherwise the tourists have been evacuated."

"Are any of the herbivores wandering," Owen asked, knowing they would be easier to herd than the predators. They naturally tended to bunch together in defense around predators so he and his girls could get them back into their paddocks easily. The others would be more difficult.

"So far the herbivores seem content to remain in their enclosures," Carter replied. "It's just the predators."

Blue nudged his side with a soft huff, leaving a rather muddy looking print on his side for a moment before the rain washed it away. She was confident over the bond. This island was theirs and they would put everyone back in their place. "We'll take care of the dinosaurs," Owen reassured Carter, the pack fanned out behind him. "You worry about the humans."

 

*

 

The Metriacanthosauruses were quick but the trees hindered their movement. Adam vaguely remembered being told on the Cretaceous Cruise that these particular predators were plains hunters, which meant the forest around them was likely slowing them down, giving the three humans they were chasing a chance to escape. He might have been in good shape from his work at Sea World, but Adam had no illusions about who would ultimately win. The dinosaurs had more endurance and eventually the forest would run out or Grace or Adam would trip and one of the carnivores would be on them in seconds. Their odds for survival weren't good.

"We need to split up," Grace panted out, dodging around another thick trunked tree. "Make them divide to follow us." Adam nodded in agreement, focusing on continuing to put one foot in front of the other. "You go left," Grace ordered and then broke sharply to the right.

Adam broke left and heard the dinosaurs behind them let out warbling, bird like calls before seeming to come to some sort of decision. "How many?" Adam asked as he felt Allie's head lift from where it had been tucked into his shoulder for most of the run.

"One," came the soft reply and Adam nodded. One was manageable. Adam could keep just ahead of one if he focused on where he placed his feet instead of worrying about Grace. Grace was a very capable woman. She could take care of herself.

The trees in front of Adam quickly began to thin and he felt his stomach clench with fear. When the trees ran out, the Metriacanthosaurus behind them would be much faster than he ever could manage. He pushed himself faster, and in his haste, Adam stumbled. His feet came out from underneath him and he toppled towards the ground, struggling to twist his body so he wouldn't land on the eight year old cradled in his arms.

His left shoulder, the one Allie'd had her head buried against, hit the ground hard, sending a bolt of burning pain through his body. The jolt of him hitting the ground combined with his grip loosening at the sudden pain had the little girl slipping free from his grip, sending her rolling into a ditch by the edge of a gravel road, presumably one of the access roads behind the scenes at Jurassic World. She let out a startled, pained cry as Adam skidded to a stop, body aching. "Run," he rasped in Allie's direction, attempting to push himself to his feet as she scrambled up and obeyed. The attempt to rise did little more but send a wave of pain through him, making him collapse back to the ground.

A low grumble from nearby had him freezing, forgetting how to breathe in sudden fear. Adam had worked with underwater predators from Orcas to Tiger Sharks. He knew their signs of aggression almost instinctively and how to react to them. Land dwelling predators mystified him. Land dwelling dinosaurs outside their enclosures terrified him. He lay there, perfectly still, trying to pretend the fall had killed him and hoping it would make the creature looming above him go away. He'd heard once, when he'd visited his sister in the Rockies, that bears left if you played dead. Maybe predatory dinosaurs were the same way. A scale covered nose nudging his arm made him reconsider that idea.

Adam blinked an eye open and took in the sight of a massive head filled with sharp teeth near his bad shoulder. All his held breath escaped him in a rush as the creature opened its mouth and, almost delicately, settled teeth around his arm. Adam couldn't help but scream at the sudden pain and the creature jerked back in fright at the sound, letting out a high cry, almost like some kind of tropical Macaw. It was responded to by a low, menacing sounding hiss as a new predator emerged from the rain soaked shadows, this one a creature he recognized. A Velociraptor.

 

*

 

Allie ran, lungs aching with each breath. Gravel crunched under her feet and puddles sent small splashes of muddy water on to her legs. She couldn't tell whether or not the Metriacanthosaurus was following her because she couldn't hear anything over the thundering of her own heartbeat. She felt bruised all over from the fall and chilled to the bone as rain continued to drench her. She stumbled a little and then sank down in the middle of the street, too tired to continue. Allie shivered and wrapped her arms tight around her legs, burying her head against them. This morning had been so bright and promising. It felt so far away now, almost like a dream that she'd started to forget after waking up.

A little sob escaped her, shoulders shuddering. The puddle she'd sank down in vibrated with the motion and she stared down at it, only to suck in a deep breath as the puddle vibrated again, sending ripples out around her body. Allie lifted her head slowly, eyes fixing on another puddle. The steadily falling rain caused small ripples, nothing like the giant one she'd just seen. She waited, holding her breath, and saw another massive ripple. That was when she felt the predatory, distant mind of the t-rex, like seeing storm clouds roll in on the horizon. She stumbled on to shaking legs, water dripping off her soaked skin and clothes, and started to run again.

Her aching legs didn't let her get far. She stumbled to a stop, the Rex still coming. Each footstep was beginning to shake the ground as Allie stumbled to a stop against the overlook to the Edmontosaurus enclosure. The creatures had lifted their heads at the approach and trumpeted among one another, babies being herded towards the center of the group. Allie caught sight of a straggly looking brown ponytail in the middle of the dinosaurs, almost as if it belonged there. The figure emerged from the herd, to reach up a hand towards Allie saying, "Hurry."

Allie took the hand, too tired and scared to really worry about what the woman was saying, and then let out a startled yelp when she was pulled into the enclosure. "Shh," the woman murmured. "The Rex is coming." She pulled Allie into the middle of the Edmontosaurus herd, ducking them both down so they were hidden by massive bodies. "Whatever happens, just stay down," the woman murmured. "She's looking for easy prey." Allie nodded, not protesting the arm around her shoulders as the Rex's heavy footsteps grew closer.


	12. Chapter 12

Leaving Dan to deal with the humans while Owen and the girls dealt with the dinosaurs sounded good in theory but didn't quite work in practice. Case in point, Blue was hissing irritably at a Metriacanthosaurus that was backing away from a downed Adam Walters. The man in question didn't look like he was planning on getting up any time soon but he was still breathing so they didn't have to add another casualty to the list. Claire should be happy about that.

The sudden appearance of Delta from the forest drove the Metriacanthosaurus into retreat. It wasn't that the predator was really much different in size than Owen's girls. Rather it was more that the Metriacanthosaurus was outnumbered. Owen ignored the retreating dinosaur for the moment, trusting Blue to watch his back as she always did. Charlie and Echo had spread out and were searching for the other two Metricanthosaurus, Delta still stalking the retreating slightly smaller carnivore. Owen kept track of their progress as he crouched next to Walters and lightly shook him. "Mr. Walters?"

Adam Walters rolled over, a rather dazed look on his face and blood seeping steadily out of the bite mark on his arm. He stared up at Owen for a moment, mouth moving soundlessly, before he managed to slur out, "Owen Grady, right?"

"Yeah," Owen agreed, turning to look at his beta. "Blue, find Carter and bring him here." She huffed at him, as if she suspected he was doubting her skills and vanished into the underbrush, leaving the raptor trainer to focus on Walters. The other man was staring at him as if he'd been trying to catch Owen's gaze.

"They're still out there," he rasped.

"Don't worry," Owen attempted to reassure the younger man. "My girls will keep the other predators away."

" _No_ ," Walters insisted. "Grace and Allie." His hand flung out towards the ditch on the other side of the road when he mentioned the little girl's name.

The woman with dreadlocks and the little girl. Their faces slipped into Owen's mind easily, despite the fact that he'd done his best to push the Animal Rights group from his memory after their visit. He hadn't done it because the visit had been colossally awful, but because otherwise he'd worry himself and his girls to distraction over the final review. "Where?" he asked, head rising so he could scan the surrounding jungle, but Walters didn't answer. The adrenaline had worn off and, between that and the blood loss he'd passed out. Owen did his best to staunch the flow while he waited for Blue to return with Carter.

 

Carter arrived five minutes after Walters had passed out. The man flung open the door of the company issued vehicle, one of his newest security personnel follow behind him. Owen winced at the blinding glare of the headlights washing over him. Blue warbled at him, prancing over to nuzzle against his shoulder as Carter and his helper carefully hefted Walters up, hurrying towards the vehicle. "Good work, Blue," he told her, reaching up a still bloody hand to rub against her muzzle. She warbled at him and then lifted her head to call for her sisters.

"Are you hurt Grady?" Carter called from by the driver's side door of the vehicle.

"I'm good," Owen called back. "You might want to send a couple of your people into the jungle though. Walters said that he wasn't out here alone." Carter nodded, slamming the door. The engine of the vehicle roared as Dan gunned the engine and peeled out, spraying mud everywhere. Blue made a disgruntled sounding noise and Owen laughed. His beta's body had shielded him from the worst of the mud but she'd been coated. "Sorry girl," he told her, rubbing her muzzle again as her sisters emerged from the jungle, herding the Metricanthosauruses between them. Owen stood, wiping bloody hands on his already filthy pants. "My good, clever girls," he said, grinning at them and they warbled back at him, feeling incredibly proud of themselves over the bond. "Take them back to their pen?" His girls called out acknowledgement before guiding the three Metricanthosauruses towards the main road.

While Delta, Echo, and Charlie focused on their herding, Blue nudged Owen's shoulder. Her feelings on the matter were perfectly clear. Her pack sisters could make sure the other creatures were locked up where they belonged. She was staying with her alpha. Owen nodded in acknowledgement, knowing that if he ran into one of the other loose predators he would likely need some kind of backup. "Come on Blue," he told her, turning in the direction that Walters had indicated when he'd mentioned the little girl. "We have people to find."

 

*

 

Surrounded by the circle of the Edmontosauruses with the reassuring weight of a gentle arm around her shoulder, Allie shivered, eyes straining against the darkness. The heavy footsteps of the Rex were growing closer, shaking the ground, and the herbivores around them felt wary and alert, bunching together to protect the young. Allie could feel, distantly, that the adult Edmontosauruses were aware of the humans in their midst but the foreign presence didn't bother them. "The Rex should stay away from the herd," the trainer murmured in the little girl's ear. "She's well fed so she'll be looking for easy prey at the moment. Anything that's going to put up more fight than a goat should be ignored."

Allie nodded, silently accepting what she was being told. From her Dad's work she knew that caged animals could become lazy, in a way. Their food was delivered to them, so with no need to hunt, when released, often they didn't go after challenging prey, either because they didn't have the instincts necessary to hunt or weren't interested in expending the effort necessary to hunt. Hopefully it applied to prehistoric predators.

The t-rex came into view, looming through the rain. Lightning flashed, illuminating the massive dinosaur from behind, making it look even more menacing than she already was. Her massive head swung towards the Edmontosaurus paddock, nostrils flaring. Inside her cage she'd been nothing more than a fuzzy, distantly predatory hum, but now that she was free, the rex was focused. Her mind still wasn't as sharp as the minds of the raptors had been but it was definitively more active. It was also almost overwhelmingly possessive. There was a distinct sense that this island was hers, and that she could do as she wanted with those inhabiting it.

The Edmontosauruses were alert, all eyes focused on the massive predator who stared down at them. The rex rumbled at them and, in response, one of the Edmontosauruses trumpeted. The sound was echoed by the others, bouncing off the sunken walls and reverberating through the air. The rex remained for a moment longer before stalking past the enclosure and further into the main body of the park. Alyssa's breath escaped in a shudder as the herbivores surrounding she and the trainer relaxed their guard. The warm arm around her shoulders shifted so that the woman could pick her up, carrying her the short distance to an overhang at the entrance of a cave meant to shelter the Edmontosauruses. The handler set the her down and crouched in front of her, worried brown eyes surveying Allie. "Are you okay sweetheart?"

"Y-yeah," Allie stammered, shivering. She was cold, wet, and a little bruised and scraped from when Adam had fallen but otherwise unharmed.

"Where's your parents?" the woman asked and Allie's eyes welled with tears. Her shoulders shook with sobs as she remembered the horrifying feeling of the rex killing her mother. For all she knew, Dad could have already faced the same fate. "Oh sweetheart," the woman cooed, pulling her into a tight hug. "It'll be okay." Allie shook her head against the woman's shoulder, unable to stop the tears from pouring down her cheeks. She'd thought visiting a dinosaur park would be a dream come true, but it had turned into a nightmare.

Allie wasn't sure how long it took her to stop crying. Long enough for the sound of thunder to soften as the rain continued to fall. When at last she calmed the woman pulled back a little and brushed strands of Allie's blonde hair away from her cheeks. "I don't think we've been introduced," the woman said with a soothing smile. "I'm Olivia O'Daniel."

"Allie H-Harper," Allie replied, breath still hitching a little.

"Well Miss Harper," Olivia O'Daniel said, standing and offering the little girl her hand. "Let's get you somewhere warm and safe, okay?"

"Okay," Allie agreed, reaching out and taking the woman's hand.

 

*

 

"Please tell me you have some good news," Claire begged when Lorenzo finished his phone conversation. This night had been a disaster so far and she needed something to go right or she was going to have a panic attack the likes of which she hadn't experienced since right after the i-rex mess.

"Maybe," Lorenzo hedged. "Apparently Mr. Trenton mentioned something about Ms. Warring's personal laptop in conjecture with the door codes for our facilities. One of his people is going to bring it over while the others take Trenton to medical."

"Can you find out if Ms. Warring deliberately put people at the park at risk through her laptop? Claire asked, eyes narrowing. She had no doubt that there were going to be a few lawsuits after this mess was over and she wanted to be able to say, in no uncertain terms, that Rachel Warring was the one who was responsibile for casualties and injuries caused by the dinosaurs being set free. Since Lorenzo had to completely reboot the camera system, and the virus had been affecting the cameras before then, she wasn't certain that they'd have footage of Warring releasing the t-rex.

"Possibly," Lorenzo replied. "I won't be able to tell you until I get a chance to poke around with it though." Claire nodded, almost glad when her cell phone rang again. Anything that might distract her from the big, horrifying picture at this moment was welcome.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for not updating for an incredibly long time! Real life and some wayward plot bunnies got in the way, but I promise that this story will be completed. (And I'm hoping that the next chapter doesn't take so long to write)

The rain refused to let up, but to Olivia O'Daniel that was a good thing. The heavy rainfall would make it difficult for a predator to track her and the little girl at her side, and it would help shield them from sight if they managed to stay a good distance away from the roaming dinosaurs. Olivia had come out to check on her herd when the storm had stared. Edmontosauruses weren't bothered by rainfall, but she'd wanted to make sure they could get to shelter if the storm picked up. She'd gotten distracted, once she'd arrived, with looking over the newest additions to the herd. They'd flocked around her, all looking for a little bit of attention before spreading back out and grazing, and she'd gladly given it to them. They were good girls, patient with the gawking guests and calm for the vets that came every so often to check up on them.

Before accepting the position at Jurassic World, Olivia had worked with giraffes at a zoo. The tall herbivores had dealt with people day in and day out during feedings, and they'd had the same kind of patient presence as the Edmontosauruses did. It hadn't taken Olivia long to connect with them, though she held herself carefully separate so as not to become one of them. Once, a long time ago, her older sister Amber had left to study Asian Elephants. At first her letters had been clear and crisp, filled with her usual enthusiasm and humor, but gradually the letters had grown fewer and farther between, each one becoming more disjointed. Amber had never returned from that trip and Olivia found herself still dealing with the thought that she'd watched her sister lose herself a little more with each and every letter.

The little girl at Olivia's side was shivering, the constant downpour having long ago soaked through her clothing. Mud stained one side of her clothing, likely from a fall, and had liberally splattered up both of her legs just from walking around. Her eyes were fixed blankly ahead and Olivia wondered if she was going into shock. She wasn't sure what the little girl had witnessed, but she doubted it was anything good. Jurassic World had its dark side, any place that worked with predators inevitably did, but that wasn't something a child should have seen.

"We're just going to head down the main street towards the exploration center and control room," Olivia told the girl with forced cheer in her voice. "Then we'll get you bundled up in some blankets and figure out things from there, okay?" She got a nod in response to that as they turned cautiously on to the main street.

Olivia was well aware that at least two cages were open, releasing her own girls and the rex. She doubted that they were the only ones loose. The herbivores were likely to stay within their enclosures, and even if they wandered a bit they wouldn't be much of a problem. The predators were what worried her. Even if they didn't have any desire to find out what a human tasted like, they would be more easily threatened by another presence. Staying calm and moving slowly around herbivores would help a person avoid provoke them, but anything that was carnivorous could be a whole different ball game.

The pair had taken two steps into the main street, which had turned into a small river due to the sheer volume of water that was pouring down from the sky, when Olivia pulled the girl to a sudden stop. The large blue and gold bulk of a Suchomimus had its back to them, body bent over the running water. A snout like a crocodile's was open, revealing sharp but clean teeth. She knew, from several visits to the Cretaceous Cruise, that the Suchomimus only ate fish, ignoring other possible sources of prey, but she didn't want to disturb it. This was a creature outside its territory, which might make it feel threatened by the presence of a couple humans. Olivia didn't want to take that chance.

"Okay," she whispered, gently squeezing the small hand clinging to her own. "We're going to have to go the long way around, okay?" The little girl nodded, and Olivia worked to keep a smile on her face as she cautious backed them both into the alley again.

 

*

 

Rachel Warring's personal laptop turned out to be a gold mine. She might have been known in the professional world of Animal Rights work as a shrewd piece of work but she'd released the dinosaurs in Jurassic World with no intention of hiding her tracks. From the time it took one of Jurassic World's security personnel to secure the laptop and bring it into Lorenzo's office to the point when he'd found remnants of the virus she'd coded and research on the types of locks Jurassic World used to secure the cages, roughly an hour had passed. Rachel, in her arrogance, hadn't even locked her laptop with a password. Once Lorenzo had booted it up, he'd found everything Masrani's lawyers would need to pin the entire mess on the deceased woman.

That information, combined with the knowledge that the security system would be up and running again in fifteen minutes, had Claire in an optimistic mood. People had died today, which was something she would need to address as soon as the crisis was over, but most the animals had remained in their cages and Owen and his pack were working on herding the ones that had wandered back into their cages. The Metriacanthosauruses and a couple adventurous Stegosauruses were already back where they belonged, cage doors shut and braced to keep them closed until the security system was back online. The pteranodons and dimorphodons had remained inside the aviary, despite the clear escape route provided, none of them wanting to brave the pounding rain, the single Suchomimus that had wandered out of its territory was waiting for fish on the main street, and the rex was wandering at the far end of the park, hopefully away from the rest of the Animal Rights group and the security teams helping brace gates and return smaller dinosaurs to their enclosures, according to reports from security teams. All in all, it could have been much worse.

Her phone rang and she picked it up after a quick glance to see who was calling. "How is it going?" she asked Carter, knowing that he had his hands full with the night's events. His last update, by text, had informed her that Adam Walters had been bitten by a Metricanthosaurus but was stable and being sent back to the main building so that medical could look over him. The man had arrived thirty minutes ago and was speaking quietly with Cole Trenton as they all waited for more news. As far as Claire knew, Grace Kimmel, Matt and Allie Harper, and Edmontosaurus keeper Olivia O'Daniel were the only people not accounted for.

"I found Ms. Kimmel," Carter told her. "She's a little shaken up but unharmed. I've already sent her out with part of the team. She should be arriving shortly."

"Any sign of either of the Harpers?" Claire asked, forcing herself to stay seated instead of pacing nervously like she wanted to. Two on the Animal Rights team had been killed and two injured already. She didn't want anything to happen to either of the remaining, unaccounted for team members when there was something she could do to prevent it.

"Nothing yet," Carter replied. "We're keeping an eye out though. Owen as well. He was working on rounding up the Baryonyx pack last time I heard from him."

"That's good." Claire's leg bounced nervously and she forced it to stop as soon as she noticed. "Keep me posted."

"I promise," Carter reassured her before hanging up and going back to work.

Claire placed the phone gently on her lap and glanced over at Lorenzo, who was staring at the screen in front of him as if it held all the answers in the universe, a pencil tapping out a steady beat on the edge of his desk. "How much longer?" she asked, knowing that the sooner they could get the enclosures sealed, the better.

"Seven minutes," Lorenzo replied, pencil still tapping. "Then we'll be back on line and ready to seal the cages up."

"Good. That's good." Claire stood abruptly, knowing that there was no way she was going to be able to sit any longer. "I'm going to check with Mr. Walters and Mr. Trenton. Let me know when the system is up again."

"Of course," was Lorenzo's understanding response but Claire was already striding away, heels clicking on the tile floor.

 

*

 

The area around the t-rex enclosure was eerily silent. None of the other dinosaur enclosures were very close to the rex, likely because the massive predator would disturb them, so the silence after hours probably wasn't unusual. Still, it had Matt worried. He'd been scouring the park, looking for any sign of Rachel or Cole, but he'd been avoiding the T-Rex Kingdom because he hadn't wanted to encounter the massive predator. Unfortunately, he was running out of places to search.

Before coming to Jurassic World, Matt had done his best to learn everything he could about the dinosaurs that resided in the park. He considered being well informed about an animal's natural habitat an important part of his job. The less he knew about a subject, the less capable he felt about offering a professional opinion about it. Jody had been extremely helpful on this case, pointing him towards all kind of information on dinosaurs, from briefs released from Masrani Global to papers written by Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. While he didn't remember everything he read in his effort to inform himself, he did recall reading something about the rex's sight being based mostly on motion. He hoped that if he moved slowly and kept an eye out for danger, he would manage to avoid being attacked by the carnivore.

The door to the rex's enclosure was wide open but there was no sign of the giant predator anywhere. Either she was hiding in the jungle farther back from the viewing area on her enclosure or she had already wandered off. The only sign that there had been any humans around was one of Rachel's blue Converse lying on its side near the entrance to the enclosure. Matt picked it up, noting that the laces were still tied. The shoe had likely come loose and fallen off of Rachel's foot rather than having been removed on purpose. Shoe still in hand, he glanced dubiously into the open enclosure, trying to decide if Rachel would have been crazy enough to go into the enclosure. After a moment he decided she just might have. And Cole might have followed her in an attempt to reign in that insanity. Shoe still in hand, Matt pulled in a deep breath and took a cautious step into the enclosure.


End file.
